General Article Animal welfare and animal rights are very different beasts

Topic Selected: Animal Rights
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Animal welfare and animal rights are very different beasts

Robert John Young, University of Salford

More than 20 years ago, the university department where I was doing my PhD was fire bombed by animal rights activists. At the time, I was conducting research into animal welfare, as were many of the staff in my department. I found it hard to understand why a research department whose main objective was to improve the well-being of animals would be the target for such an attack.

I suspect most people, as I did then, see animal welfare and animal rights as synonyms. In reality, however, they are at opposite ends of the continuum concerning our treatment of animals.

Proponents of animal welfare are interested in questions like: “How can we improve the well-being of zoo animals?” Whereas animal rights supporters ask questions like: “Should we have zoos?”

These are very different questions with diametrically opposed outcomes: the constant improvement of zoos or their closing down. Both cou...

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