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Animal Rights

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Defined:
  • "Animal rights means that animals are not ours to use for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation. Animal welfare allows these uses as long as 'humane' guidelines are followed." -  PETA FAQ's Page, 10-1-99

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS):

Wayne Pacelle, President & CEO
  • "We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding. ... One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding." - (Quoted in Animal People, May, 1993)
  • If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would." - (Quoted in "Impassioned Agitator," Associated Press, Dec. 30, 1991)
  • "Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting. Our opponents say that hunting is a tradition. We say traditions can change." - (Quoted in Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Oct. 8, 1991)
  • "Only 7% of Americans are hunters. That means there are more of us than there are of them. It is simply a matter of democracy. The majority rules in a democracy. We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United States... We will take it species by species until all hunting is stopped in California. Then we will take it state by state." - (Full Cry, October 1990)

Michael Fox, Past Vice-President
  • (Expressing opposition to use of bug sprays) "Only a few of the million you kill would have bitten you." - (In "Returning to Eden", Fox publication)
  • "Anthropocentrism, regarding human kind as the very center and pinnacle of existence, is a disease of arrested development." -- (Speech "A Vision Shared: What We Are Fighting For," to the World Congress for Animals, Washington, D.C., June 20, 1996)
  • "We are not superior. There are no clear distinctions between us and animals." - (Washingtonian Magazine, February 1990)
  • "The life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration." - (In Inhumane Society, 1990)
  • "The life of an ant and the life of my child should be accorded equal respect." - (The Associated Press, Jan. 15, 1989)
  • "Human care (of animals) is simply sentimental, sympathetic patronage." - (Newsweek interview, 1988)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

Alex Pacheco, Co-founder 
  • We feel that animals have the same rights as a retarded human child because they are equal mentally in terms of dependence on others." - (New York Times, Jan. 14, 1989)
  • Alex Pacheco, a co-founder of PETA, says arson, property destruction, burglary or theft are [begin quote] 'acceptable crimes when they directly alleviate the pain and suffering of an animal'." - (Associated Press News feature, Jan. 3, 1989)

Ingrid Newkirk, Co-founder
  • "Meat eating is primitive, barbaric, and arrogant." - (City Paper, Feb. 1990)
  • "Even if animal research produced a cure [for AIDS], we'd be against it." - (Vogue, September 1989)
  • "Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses." - (Washington Post, 1983)
  • "If my father had a heart attack, it would give me no solace at all to know his treatment was first tried on a dog." - (Washington Post, Nov. 13, 1983)
  • "I wish we all would get up and go into the labs and take the animals out or burn them down." - (National Animal Rights Convention '97, June 27, 1997)
  • "The bottom line is that people don't have the right to manipulate or to breed dogs and cats ... If people want toys, they should buy inanimate objects. If they want companionship, they should seek it with their own kind." - ("Animals", May/June 1993)
  • "Animal liberationists do not separate out the human animal, so there is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They're all mammals." - (Vogue, September 1989)
  • "It [animal research] is immoral even if it is essential." - (Washington Post, May 30, 1989)
  • "I don't use the word 'pet.' I think it's specieist language. I prefer 'companion animal.' For one thing, we would no longer allow breeding ... as the surplus of cats and dogs declined, eventually companion animals would be phased out, and we would return to a more symbiotic relationship - enjoyment at a distance." - (In "Just Like Us? Toward a Notion of Animal Rights", Harper's Magazine, August 1988)
  • "Pet ownership is an absolutely abysmal situation brought on by human manipulation." - (Washingtonian Magazine, August 1986)