Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

Are animal welfare supporters indistinguishable from the animal exploiters they oppose? Do reformist measures "reaffirm "the underlying principles that make animal exploitation possible in the first place? In this provocative book, Gary L. Francione argues that the modern animal rights movement has become indistinguishable from a century-old concern with the "welfare "of animals that in no way prevents them from being exploited.

Francione maintains that advocating humane treatment of animals retains a sense of them as instrumental to human ends. When they are considered dispensable property, he says, they are left fundamentally without rights. Until the seventies, Francione claims, this was the paradigm within which the Animal Rights Movement operated, as demonstrated by laws such as the Federal Humane Slaughter Act of 1958.

In this wide-ranging book, Francione takes the reader through the philosophical and intellectual debates surrounding animal welfare to make clear the difference between animal rights and animal welfare. Through case studies such as campaigns against animal shelters, animal laboratories, and the wearing of fur, Francione demonstrates the selectiveness and confusion inherent in reformist programs that target fur, for example, but leave wool and leather alone.

The solution to this dilemma, Francione argues, is not in a liberal position that espouses the humane treatment of animals, but in a more radical acceptance of the fundamental inalienability of animal rights.

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Animal rights and animal welfare differ significantly. By the former, animals are individuals with rights, and any human treatment of them as property violates those rights and is thus immoral. By the latter, humans' treatment of animals as property is acceptable but must be done without inflicting unnecessary suffering. Francione cogently argues that the animal liberation movement, though using rights rhetoric and espousing the eradication of animal exploitation, actually represents a new, self-defeating welfarism because its tactics embody the animal welfare position. Consequently, the plight of animals is arguably worse than it was 20 years ago. He advocates, strongly, the more radical animal rights position. Although sometimes overly detailed, repetitive, and legalistic, the book contains a clear delineation of the two perspectives, from basic philosophy (Peter Singer's welfare theory versus Tom Regan's rights theory) to strategy and tactics. Though Francione does not discuss anti-animal theories, he does respond to the "utopian" charge against animal rights and proposes criteria for efforts to secure such rights incrementally. Suitable for upper-division undergraduates through professionals. W. Ouderkirk SUNY Empire State College