Animal right

Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the interests of non-human animals—for example, avoiding suffering—should have the same consideration as the interests of human beings. Animal rights advocates argue that animals should not be regarded as property, or treated as resources for human purposes, but should instead be regarded as legal persons and members of a moral community.Extending personhood to animals is supported by legal scholars such as Alan Dershowitz and Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School,.

The Seattle-based Great Ape Project is campaigning for the United Nations to adopt a Declaration on Great Apes, which would see gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos included in a "community of equals" with human beings, extending to them the protection of three basic interests: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture.

This is seen by an increasing number of animal rights lawyers as a first step toward granting rights to other animals. Critics of the concept of animal rights argue that animals do not have the capacity to enter into a social contract or make moral choices, and therefore cannot be regarded as possessors of moral rights. The philosopher Roger Scruton argues that only human beings have duties and that "[t]he corollary is inescapable: we alone have rights."

Critics holding this position argue that there is nothing inherently wrong with using animals for food, as entertainment, and in research, though human beings may nevertheless have an obligation to ensure they do not suffer unnecessarily. This position is generally called the animal welfare position, and it is held by some of the oldest of the animal protection agencies., also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the interests of non-human animals—for example, avoiding suffering—should have the same consideration as the interests of human beings.

From: Wikipedia