Animal Rights v. Animal Welfare (Part 1 of 3)

So you’re an animal lover, and you want to use your money for animal protection. If you’ve given before, your mailbox is probably full of requests from animal protection non-profits. But you’re probably well aware of the extremes to which some animal advocates are taking their convictions. Obviously, you’d like to know exactly what type of activism your money supports. In order to understand the ins-and-outs of animal protection, first consider the philosophies of two very divergent camps: Animal Welfare vs. Animal Rights.

According to the California Biomedical Research Association’s Fact Sheet on Animal Welfare and Animal Rights, “Animal Welfare Endorses the responsible use of animals to satisfy certain human needs,” whereas Animal Rights “maintains that animals are not ours to use at all.” The outlooks are different enough that, depending on the philosophy to which a particular shelter or organization adheres, you might in fact be support conflicting or opposite endeavors.

Animal Rights

Most of the current debate between these two camps surrounds the issues of animal ownership and the right to kill animals for food or clothing. The most visible proponent of Animal Rights is nonprofit with global reach called, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). According to PETA’s Wikipedia entry:

PETA claims to have 1.8 million members and supporters and to be the largest animal rights group in the world ... It focuses on four core issues: factory farming, fur farming, animal testing, and animals in entertainment ... It aims to inform the public of its position through advertisements, undercover investigations, animal rescue, and lobbying.

Animal Welfare

While PETA enjoys immense visibility, its efforts have also garnered wide-ranging detractors, especially among institutions adhering to an Animal Welfare philosophy. One such group, The American Dog Owners Association (ADOA) was originally established in Detroit, Michigan in 1970 to combat illegal dog fighting and promote responsible ownership. Today, the American Dog Owners Association, or the ADOA, has grown over the years to become the nation's oldest and largest member-based organization representing dog owners.

As a group expounding the Animal Welfare philosophy, the ADOA, while advocating for animal protection, places the rights of humans above those of animals. As such, they are neither against owning animals nor against eating them.

To the untrained eye, each organization’s perspective and the philosophy’s they represent, may seem like gradations on the same sliding scale of animal protection. However, they support wildly different policies to achieve their ideals. We explored this chasm by interviewing representatives from each nonprofit on two specific issues. More tomorrow.

This is the first of a three-part post written by Chad Callaghan.

Susan Herr