The Difference Between Rights and Welfare.

***This is a snippet of part of a guest column I had in the Herald Dispatch***

Animal Rights Vs. Animal Welfare.

Animal WELFARE is about humane treatment of animals; in fact, animal welfare is essentially synonymous with the original humane movement begun in England in the l840's.

Animal RIGHTS is claiming animals have legal rights, as people do, and the most basic animal right is the right not to be owned or used for any purpose at all by human beings.

Animal WELFARE supporters aim for a balance between owning and using animals as humanely as possible and allowing owners and breeders their rights to own, use, and breed animals.

Animal RIGHTS supporters aim to end all ownership, use, and breeding of all animals. They envision a world in which no animals are left anywhere, because, allegedly, man has so mis-treated animals, man no longer deserves to have animals. If it is not possible to end the existence of all animals by sterilization, then at least, all animals should be set free to make their way in the wilderness. Anything less than that is slavery.

Animal RIGHTS people do NOT believe in animal welfare. On the contrary, they are not interested in so-called humane treatment of animals, because they believe there should be no interaction at all between animals and human beings.