Chapter 1
All Animals Are Equal ...
orwhytheethicalprincipleonwhichhumanequalityrests
requires us to extend equal consideration to animals too
“AnimalLiberation”maysoundmorelikeaparodyofother
liberationmovements thana seriousobjective.Theidea of
“TheRightsofAnimals”actuallywasonceusedtoparody
thecaseforwomen’srights. WhenMary Wollstonecraft,a
forerunneroftoday’sfeminists,publishedherVindicationof
theRightsofWomanin1792,herviewswerewidelyregarded
as absurd, and before long an anonymous publication
appearedentitledAVindicationoftheRightsofBrutes.The
author of this satirical work (now known to have been
ThomasTaylor,adistinguishedCambridgephilosopher)tried
torefuteMary Wollstonecraft’sargumentsbyshowingthat
theycouldbecarriedonestagefurther.Iftheargument for
equalitywassoundwhenappliedto women,whyshouldit
not be applied to dogs, cats, and horses? The reasoning
seemedtoholdforthese“brutes”too;yettoholdthatbrutes
hadrightswasmanifestlyabsurd.Thereforethereasoningby
whichthisconclusionhadbeenreachedmustbeunsound,and
ifunsoundwhenappliedtobrutes,itmustalsobeunsound
whenappliedtowomen,sincetheverysameargumentshad
been used in each case.
Inordertoexplainthebasisofthecasefortheequalityof
animals,itwillbehelpfultostartwithanexaminationofthe
casefortheequalityofwomen.Letusassumethatwewishto