Veganism and Animal Rights

Veganism and animal rights are not separate movements. As explained by Donald Watson (who co-founded the Vegan Society in 1944), veganism is based on the concept that human exploitation of other animals could and should be abolished.

Donald Watson envisioned people cultivating acceptance of the ideal of non-exploitation, thereby abolishing vast industries and replacing them with clearly defined vegan initiatives -- peaceful, respectful methods of providing for ourselves. By renouncing dominion, Watson believed in the power of activists to cultivate a society that could truly be called a civilization.

In other words, veganism is the principle of animal rights in action. The movement for abolition of the systematic exploitation of other animals thus dates back over 60 years.

Is Veganism Compatible With Animal Welfare?

Yes, it is.

Lee Hall is co-author of a vegan cookbook, Friends of Animals’ legal director, and a 25-year vegan. Lee writes:

Vegans advance “animal welfare” in the truest sense of the term. We promote the survival and freedom of free-living animals both by reducing our impact on their habitat, and by not consuming them.

At the same time, domesticated animals require us to look after their welfare; this is a matter of morality and common sense. Here again, we promote their well-being in the truest sense of the term. We look after them when they are here, but we do not breed them or use them. And we don’t consume them.

We shouldn’t confuse looking after dependent animals’ true welfare (a good idea) with what rights proponents sometimes call “welfarism” (a negative idea meaning advocacy focused on adjusting methods of handling animals within exploitive systems).

This is why it would be best to stop using the term “welfare” and “welfarist” when we’re talking about animals used in commerce: that’s confusing vocabulary! “Husbandry” or “handling” are the accurate terms to discuss changes in the conditions within commerce.

Animal Rights Means Opting Out of -- Not Reforming -- Industries

Taking animal rights seriously means distinguishing between dependent animals and animals who can live, without human control, in their own spaces. Animal-rights theory applies specifically to free-living animals.

Dependent animals, such as dogs or cows, cannot experience genuine benefits of animal rights. We can’t set them free, for freeing dependent animals would be abandonment.

Nor is the point of vegan activism to seek and reduce various painful methods of using them as commodities or research subjects and killing them when their usefulness ends.

Thus, declining to create more dogs and cows is the best decision an animal-rights activist can apply. (Here it bears noting that the environmental footprint of 6.6 billion human apes is multiplied several times over by our propensity to walk the earth with an entourage of purpose-bred animals!)

Donald Watson urged vegans to take the broad view of what veganism stands for – that is, going beyond finding the latest recipe. Of course, good recipes are important. Additionally, though, veganism is a social movement. It advances the ability of free animals to remain in their own communities, unmolested. And that is the basic definition of animal rights.

Vegan activism can and does work. It works each time another person commits to vegan living, as simply as Donald Watson expressed it. We say that nonhuman animals do have rights -- vis-à-vis the people who unequivocally respect their interests in living on their own terms.

Interested in more like this? Click here to read Lee Hall’s article “Animal Rights, Untamed” in Dissident Voice.