Animal rights vs animal welfare?

Many people talk about 'animal rights' when they mean 'animal welfare', or they talk about believing in 'animal rights' when they don't really know what it means!

Animal rights people like PETA and HSUS want to gradually phase out ALL human contact...

with animals! That means pets, also! No owning dogs and cats, no riding horses, etc.

Animal rights people are SICK.

Animal welfare people believe that people should have pets, ride horses etc, but that animals should be protected and kept from harm. If animals have to die, it should be as painless and humane as possible.

Go animal welfare!

Very HOT topic...

I am an animal welfarist...and understand very well, the difference between Rightists and Welfarists...

Unfortunately, PETA and other Rightists groups toss the subject out to the general public under the cloak of Welfare...If they actually SAID what they meant, nobody would go for it...

Sorry squirrelygirl...but there IS a blaitant division line between the two.

phrannie

That's an inaccurate generalization. I think we should grant animals certain rights in relation to their capacities, but there's no way I'd affiliate myself with those groups or those positions. I think what you call animal welfare stems from our recognizing their capacity for suffering and our granting them the right not to suffer needlessly.

It's not any kind of clear-cut division.

I think there's a lot of gray area in this topic. Not your fault of course.

But as cthulhu said (and I chuckle as I quote him for his username makes me giggle...), it's not any kind of clear-cut division.

There are extremist animal rights groups, but that doesn't mean that anyone who thinks we should recognize animal rights is an extremist.

There are right-to-life groups that bomb abortion clinics and assassinate doctors, but you wouldn't dream of painting everyone who's against abortion with that brush.