Entries by Gary L. Francione

Woke Animal Rights Means No Animal Rights, Part 2: Wokeabulary

Part 1 of this essay is here. Our social discourse is peppered with a great many words that reflect various aspects of woke culture. Let’s consider three that appear frequently in discussions about animal ethics and consider examples from that context. “Mansplaining”: There is no doubt we live in a patriarchal world that is replete with sexism and […]

Woke Animal Rights Means No Animal Rights, Part 1

Is being sensitive about injustice a good thing? You bet it is. Racism, sexism, homophobia — and speciesism — are all around us. We need to be aware of these various forms of discrimination and we ought to reject them. Principle 5 of the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights is clear: Abolitionists reject all forms of human discrimination, […]

Surprise: U.K. Law Recognizes That Sentient Animals Are Sentient

The U.K. is proposing to do something that is absolutely revolutionary: it is going to enshrine in law that sentient animals are sentient. Never mind that, in 1789, Jeremy Bentham argued that the moral significance of animals did not hinge on whether animals had humanlike cognitive attributes but only on whether they are sentient: “the question […]

Is the Domestication of Animals Morally Justifiable?

For the past thirty or so years, I have developed what has come to known as the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights. One aspect of that theory rejects the status of animals as chattel property and maintains that we are morally obligated to abolish, and not merely regulate, the use of animals exclusively as resources. My Abolitionist […]

Treating Humans and Nonhumans “Like Animals”

It is often the case that, when a human is mistreated by other humans, the claim is made that the victim was treated “like an animal.” What is meant by this expression is that the victim has not been treated with any recognition of their moral value. They have been treated exclusively as a means […]

How I Learned to Hate Autumn

I used to love the autumn. For a good part of my adult life, I lived in New York City. Although New York has experienced hotter summers in recent years, the reality is that New York summers have always been unpleasant. Garbage strikes and subways cars without air conditioning made them worse, but they were never great. So […]