“Animal Rights” is a much used term. One that is as common as it is misunderstood.
Many, if not most, animal activists are unclear on what Animal Rights means. It is usually used in an exclamatory context to emphasize one’s support for animal issues or to oppose animal cruelty and exploitation.
But one can be an animal activist, support animal issues, and oppose cruelty and exploitation, without supporting Animal Rights.
The closest parallel to Animal Rights is human rights. Both are legal concepts. Both require societal and governmental recognition to exist. Both demand the basic rights to life, to freedom, to be free of exploitation, of slavery, of abuse, of murder.
Rights must be enforceable or they are meaningless. Unless rights can be legally enforced, they are indistinguishable from one’s personal sense of morality.
Human rights are recognized by most world governments, in varying degrees. However, no government yet in existence recognizes the rights of animals. Animal Rights is a goal. A very distant one.
Animal Rights means an end to ownership of animals. An end to breeding, an end to animal agriculture, an end to slaughter. No more meat, dairy, eggs, leather, or fur.
It means an end to animals in entertainment, in zoos, in aquatic parks, in aquaria. It means an end to dog and horse racing, bullfighting, rodeos, dog sledding.
No more animal testing, no more vivisection, no more experiments.
Animal Rights means government enforcement of those rights.
Animal Rights means that animals have as much right to live as we have. The same right to be here on Earth. Animal Rights asserts that all sentient beings have the same rights to be free of exploitation, cruelty, abuse.
If one supports Animal Rights, a number of positions must logically also be accepted.
- If animals have the same right to life as we have, we may not kill them.
- If people do kill animals they are murderers.
Most of the world is complicit in the Animal Holocaust, and while most people do not personally kill animals, if they consume them, they are in effect hiring others to do their killing.
Animal Rights activists are at odds with all human society and most of the human race. They are enemies of every government on Earth, and almost every religion.
Animal Rights is the most revolutionary concept in history.
Believing in Animal Rights is not the same as working toward Animal Rights. To work for Animal Rights means to either be working on changing law and government, or to be recruiting for revolution.
There are only a handful of activists actually working on changing law for the recognition of rights for non-humans, mostly legal teams attempting to gain personhood status for apes, led by law professor Steven M. Wise.
All other Animal Rights activists are working on political revolution, and recruiting and radicalizing animal activists to join in the struggle. And there are precious few of those.
Which doesn’t mean Animal Rights activists are only working on revolution. They are also rescuing, adopting, fostering, liberating, transporting, sabotaging, demonstrating, organizing, educating, emailing, crossposting, and blogging.
The animal movement has many activists who support Animal Rights. But not enough.
The animals will only win when Animal Rights are achieved. A long term goal in the distant future, one that can only come about by ending the existing legal and political systems which condone the horrors we humans inflict upon animals.
Author’s Notes:
• I am unaware of any other blog with the Armory’s mission of radicalizing the animal movement. I certainly hope I am not alone, and that there are similar sentiments being expressed by comrades unknown to me.
If you know of other blogs dedicated to animal rights and the defeat of capitalism, please comment with a link.
• Be sure to follow the Armory and share it with your Facebook friends and email contacts, as well as on Twitter, Google, and all other social media platforms. Our influence and effectiveness is dependent upon you!
• Natasha Sainsbury, of Good Karma Graphic Design, has joined Armory of the Revolution as Editor, and is responsible for the transformation of the blog’s appearance. Visit and follow her blog V Kind.
• If you are not already subscribed to the Armory, please do so before you leave.
There’s a button to Follow us in the upper right sidebar.
• Be sure to visit Armory of the Revolution’s new commissary and bookstore: The Supply Depot
You will find recommended reading on Animal Rights, revolutionary theory, politics, economics, religion, science, and atheism. There is also a section of supplies for animal liberationists, hunt saboteurs, and social revolutionaries. This is all brand new, and we will be adding lots more merchandise in the near future!
• Feel free to comment. I encourage open discussion and welcome other opinions. I moderate comments because this blog has been attacked by hunters and right wing trolls. I approve comments that are critical as well as those which agree with me. Comments that I will not tolerate are those that are spam, threatening, disrespectful, or which promote animal abuse and cruelty.
Armory of the Revolution 
If Biden wins, he might expend all of his political capital expanding the size of the Supreme Court the way Obama expaended all of his political capital on passing Obamacare even though he had a Congressional majority in both houses of Congress during his first term. In both cases, that leaves little room for fundamental economic reform, which the Supreme Court has no role in, but pleases the suburban and middle-class Democratic base.
LikeLike
Biden Runs to Trump’s Right in Florida
Weiss seems to argue at the end of the article that progressives will exert influence once Biden is in power. I’m skeptical. It reminds me of the way JFK ran to the right of Eisenhower/Nixon on foreign policy in 1960 and then arguably pursued a more hawkish foreign policy than Eisenhower had, perhaps to make a liberal domestic agenda more palatable to the establishment. I believe that is the longstanding liberal pattern and that it is even more germane now, given the need for major domestic reform at the same time as the empire is desperate to be propped up by any means necessary.
https://mondoweiss.net/2020/10/biden-runs-to-trumps-right-in-florida-president-is-not-israels-friend
LikeLike
Tomato and corn farmers in Ohio have lost half their crops to overpopulation of deer this year.Police and wildlife administrators are going to allow each hunter to take 11 deer this year instead of 5.Is this cruel and what natural predator is not keeping the deer population in check? It is the responsibility of man to control overpopulation of any species,right?
LikeLike
Our insane hunting laws are the reason for deer overpopulation. Rather than acting as predators, taking the old and the inform, hunters kill the strongest of the herds, causing pressure to procreate. Does have multiple births, more does are impregnated, etc. There are now more deer in the country than when it was occupied solely by Indians.
I do not believe it is the responsibility of humans to control any populations but their own, of which we do a piss poor job. Humans are over-running the planet, destroying ecosystems, and causing our very climate to change. Humans have killed half of all life on Earth in just the past 40 years. If any other species were as destructive, humans would have been on a crusade to eradicate it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is there a valid reason why a species of omnivore on the planet should be required to stop eating meat while the other mammals continue to do so? Is the evisceration and death of a baby cape horn buffalo by a pride of lions any less revolting than the humane death of a mammal by a human? There seems to a double standard regarding sentient beings in this line of thinking. Nature is a vicious uncaring place where one creature eats another. Why are you trying to undo millions of years of evolution?
LikeLike
If humans were carnivores, you would have a point.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Dierenrechten 101 – De vrije Socialist
So if everyone stops eating farm animals, what happens to those animals? What happens to the farms? If there are no farms to grow the farm animals, won’t they become extinct? Are there wild herds of Angus beef cattle? or wild flocks of Romney sheep? Without the demand for meat, there will be no farms; no farms means no farmers;no farmers = no livestock; no livestock = extinct breeds and species. So everyone being vegan will cause mass extinction of all farm animals. Nice one!
LikeLike
Every animal trapped in the food system will die a horrible death, The only ones we can save are those we steal. If demand for their flesh were to drop, fewer animals would be bred.
The extinction of domesticated animals unable to survive in the wild would be preferable to their continued exploitation and murder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have worked, volunteered, and have personally rescued and adopted nonhuman animals from all different kinds of species, e.g. ” food”, ” lab”, ” pets”, etc. They all have to rely on the infamously unreliable human race for their every need. I have seen so- called ” animal lovers” neglect ” their” animals, because they are ” inconvenience”. I personally would rather never be born than to be forever and completely dependent on someone else . The only nonhuman animal that can have anything close to what can be considered ” rights”, are wild/ free- living animals. But because of exploding human populations , we are wiping them off the face of the earth.
LikeLike
Dear Roland,
Thank You Sir. Once again you make Great Points Re The RIGHTS of GOD’s Animals. I feel for you Sir; I feel for the Animals, I really do ….
Re Animal Rights :
As a Christian for 76 years – one of 2,3 BILLION Christians right-around-the-whole-wide-World …. as a Vegan for 40 years …. I offer up some REASONS to STOP being “a meat eater”.
These REASONS can be the basis for an Application to the Highest Court in the World asking the Court for an ORDER Re Animal Rights :
JESUS would NOT be “a meat eater” in 2017.
It is not NECESSARY to be “a meat eater” in 2017.
It is terribly terribly CRUEL to be a “a meat eater” in 2017.
It is SELFISHLY Destroying Planet Earth to be “a meat eater”.
It is Bad for your and your Children’s HEALTH to be “a meat eater”.
It causes World Hunger/STARVATION of People/Children in 2017.
SET AN EXAMPLE. Teach the People…….especially our Children.
Pope Francis has recently said – Re CLIMATE CHANGE – that it is a Crime against oneself and against Nature and it is A SIN AGAINST GOD if we do not properly consider the Environment, and if we do not act accordingly. The Pope said this to 1,2 BILLION Catholics …. and to the World ….
Pope Francis would make a Great Witness in a Court-of-LAW. No ?
Lord Bless, love Michael (heart).
LikeLike
In my opinion, animal rights are a completely unachievable concept. By necessity, with rights comes responsibilities. If a fox kills a chicken and the chicken has animal rights, that fox is then a murderer. However nothing can be done to punish the fox. Even if animal rights only exist when dealing with humans, if a lion in Africa becomes a man eater, that lion is breeching human rights. To my mind there is no possible way for animals and humans to have equal rights.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do not accept your premise “that with rights come responsibilities.” Human law recognizes the rights of children, and those with diminished capacities. Animals should have the very same right to life and freedom from slavery, abuse, and exploitation that we as humans claim for ourselves. To require that animals be subject to human law for offenses that come naturally to them is no different than requiring children to be adults, and is equally absurd.
LikeLiked by 2 people
So the chicken’s right to life is not effected if a fox kills it to eat? Then why is it effected if a human kills it to eat?
LikeLike
Humans have no need to kill to survive. Humans have the capacity to empathize, to appreciate the harm, pain, and fear they can inflict, and the ability to avoid doing so.
LikeLiked by 2 people
In your article, you say that apes also have that ability and they can most certainly sustain themselves on a vegan diet. However they choose to hunt for meat and there have even been cases of cannibalism in wild chimpanzees.
LikeLike
You make an excellent point. And one which militates for animal rights even more than it presents a conundrum.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Moralist “high-ground” vegans tend to be very arrogant, misinformed, with little or no understanding of how Homo sapiens developed early on–which is crucial to understanding why our species is so mired in environmentally-destructive Humanism. To hate other species, particularly carnivores, still surviving in wild places, is not only the worst of Humanism, but reflects your ignorance. Your ranting attempts to somehow sound “intelligent” do not work. It is the Natural world, that has sustained stupid, over-populated humans, who continue to destroy and domesticate Nature–at the peril of the planet.
If a grizzly bear happened upon you on a trail, he or she would be the one to decide your fate, you poor silly human. But probably you wouldn’t taste very good. Your kind has proven that this term has become another dangerous human ideology, clothed in new myopic, trendy religiosity. This is probably why so many vegans leave “veganism” after a year or so, & move on to trendier religions/cults.
I have been a plant-based eater for 25 years, but I never used the term “vegan,” anymore, because too many silly vegans have no concept of the importance of the Natural world, or the evolutionary process. I reach far more people discussing plant-based eating.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t see anything about “hating carnivores, still surviving in wild places,” in the article. What’s YOUR rant really about? You may be plant-based, but your speciesism is showing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Reblogged this on Sherlockian's Blog.
LikeLike
Thank you Dominique, your words made me cry, tears or sadness for the very many fights still ahead of us and tears of joy for each victory we have achieved. I am pleased that Cecil’ murder will not have been in vain- we have sent a clear and strong ‘Roar’ that hunters- particularly trophy hunters are a dying breed that will no-longer be tolerated. Those of us who fight for the rights of all living beings know the war ahead of us is a long and hard one; we know we will face many battles before victory will be achieved, and we know we must stay strong for each new battle, no matter how horrid, cruel or heartbreaking. Animals MUST be afforded the same rights as humans for them to survive man’s horrors. Veganism is a fast growing movement because (I believe) many are coming to despise the horrors and tortures committed to animals from birth to eventual death and because of the now known health benefits of avoiding meats and dairy products/by-products. I only hope in my lifetime I see all living beings recognized as being equal!
LikeLike
I am hoping for much sooner results for real animal rights, not because I am naïve, but because I have dedicated myself to animal rights since I was about 10 years old, (even before, I was born into a home with my mothers friend, in SF, had 300 rescue cats, 20 dogs and 1 capuchin rescued from a lab), when I was 15 in the early 70’s, I passed out flyers for San Mateo Co. HS for spay and neuter I did at that time see the newsletters that was sent to my mother from the UK fight against vivisection, also the dog meat trade in China, I still see the photo of the German shepherd dog with a can over his nose as a muzzle, slowly suffocating burnt into my memory. The point I am making is, that until the internet, I was not able to communicate with other activists like this, and although it seems slow going, as everyday we see insane cruelty and death, we have a louder and stronger voice than ever. I see so many everyday staying strong to voice their opinions and working towards these changes, many of these daily victories go almost unnoticed since there is so much to do, so many to save, but we have made more progress than we think, legally, morally and ethically changing many..look at the outcry of Cecil, how did that suddenly happen? The whole world let hunters know how they feel against hunting, 5 years ago this would not have happened. One of the things that might be pushing evolving is things are bad, things had to get to a point of being so bad, so horrible with the loss of wildlife, global warming that many are pushed to come out of their comfort zone and take a stand. Another thing that I have noticed over the last 5 years is veganism has gone from 3% in the US up to 7 or 10%? not sure exactly stats, but it is impressive jump. I am even more excited to learn more about the vegans coming up with this idea to stop factory farms http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/science/lab-grown-chicken-meat-could-hail-5093475 again, my point is maybe animal rights will be on the forefront sooner than later, godspeed to the innocent to get their rights to live free from harm by the monster humans, and love & light energy for those of us that will never concede or give up to achieve those rights. We have no choice but to remain positive. https://moraldilimia.wordpress.com/
LikeLike
Thank you Dominique, your words made me cry, tears or sadness for the very many fights still ahead of us and tears of joy for each victory we have achieved. I am pleased that Cecil’ murder will not have been in vain- we have sent a clear and strong ‘Roar’ that hunters- particularly trophy hunters are a dying breed that will no-longer be tolerated. Those of us who fight for the rights of all living beings know the war ahead of us is a long and hard one; we know we will face many battles before victory will be achieved, and we know we must stay strong for each new battle, no matter how horrid, cruel or heartbreaking. Animals MUST be afforded the same rights as humans for them to survive man’s horrors. Veganism is a fast growing movement because (I believe) many are coming to despise the horrors and tortures committed to animals from birth to eventual death and because of the now known health benefits of avoiding meats and dairy products/by-products. I only hope in my lifetime I see all living beings recognized as being equal!
LikeLike
You mentioned efforts to get recognition of rights for apes. Are you not aware of the efforts on behalf of marine mammals, who have demonstrated, I would suggest, more indications of their intelligence than have apes? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/21/whales-dolphins-legal-rights
LikeLike
I am well aware of a number of efforts seeking to establish personhood status for animals, in particular Steven M Wise’s efforts through the Nonhuman Rights Project. Wise is also pursuing habeas corpus actions on behalf of captive elephants.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Animals fall into 2 categories,pets we adore or livestock used by humans.Is it cruel to eat meat,God created every living thing with a purpose and that’s the way it is.Question to everyone out there.A family member dies in a car wreck because a deer hits the windshield.Deer hunting season is being cut everywhere.If hunters took more deer your family member would still be alive.Man is the image of God and the overseer of this planet,not the animal world in charge.We all have an obligation not to be cruel to animals but on the other hand animal death is a necessary evil to keep the balance of the planet.Thats the way it is,humans are in charge now,when we become extinct something else will rule.
LikeLike
Warning: Whack-job alert!!
LikeLike
Pigs are cute love pigs they will give you love back
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Species and Class.
LikeLike
Well stated but I think the repeated implication that it may take “a hundred years or more” until the revolution in our attitudes towards non-human animals finally comes about fails to take note of the veritable collapse of planetary ecosystems taking place RIGHT NOW. This is going to change everything, and not for the better. At the rate things are going the Earth will be reduced to a level of existence as portrayed in the movie “The Road”; people won’t be thinking about morality or ethics as they scramble about trying to find enough food and water to stay alive. A hundred years from now much of the wildlife will be extinct and what remains will be relentless pursued as just one more scarce food resource. If we content ourselves to wait until the time is “ripe” for revolution, the planet will have become such a squalid, miserable place that nobody with any refinement or sensibility would want to live in it. Better to go on a suicide mission right now trying to slow down the juggernaut of destruction than to delude oneself into believing that humankind will eventually come to its senses if we just give it enough time. Fighting and dying honorably for a noble but doomed cause is preferable to waiting around for a never-to-be-realized fantasy paradise.
LikeLiked by 4 people
That is such a scary reality! It makes me sad for generations to come.
LikeLike
“Better to go on a suicide mission right now trying to slow down the juggernaut of destruction than to delude oneself into believing that humankind will eventually come to its senses if we just give it enough time. Fighting and dying honorably for a noble but doomed cause is preferable to waiting around for a never-to-be-realized fantasy paradise.”
This is disingenuous proselytizing.
What good is a suicide mission if it fails? You may be prepared to die for a “noble” cause, but I’m not. Please don’t express sentiments you aren’t prepared to live by (or die by). How many troops do you need before you take up arms for this suicide mission?
I would advise you eliminate all non-human carnivores first, including all the pet canines and felines who are fed the dead remains of other species from a tin can. Please don’t tell me all other critters aren’t moral agents, so they are blameless.
Write your manifesto and go ballistic in a McDonald’s.
LikeLike
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. I don’t doubt you’d be unwilling to die for a noble cause. Too busy collecting those vegan recipes, being snarky, and venting about the immorality of wolves, lions and other carnivorous animals that fail to abide by your ethical proscriptions. Never mind 20 million years of biologic evolution and the physiologic need for animal protein and the behavioral hard-wiring built into theses obligate carnivores, the damn animals should know better! Far from being vilified, Walter Palmer and the village cat poisoner should be lauded as avatars of the New Morality of Jerry whereby the planet is cleansed of predatory species that have the effrontery to eat other animals. I guess one could explain in detail, as to a child, how carnivorous species lacking the cognitive capacity for ethical decision making cannot be held responsible for violating human codes of morality, but then what would be the point? Every website has one devoted crank poster and I guess Armory of the Revolution has found its.
LikeLike
Come on, Geoff, you have it all wrong, but, hey, I get it. To this day, I find it remarkable man has discovered (determined) just one moral species on the planet, himself, and because of this recognition, the more morally superior among him deem meat eating unethical. Now, many professionals from many academic disciplines judge the difference between us and the rest of nature as a matter of degree, but, like Mortimer J. Adler, I think we are cognitively of a different kind. Still, if this difference is a matter of degree rather than a matter of kind, might we acknowledge the disposition of morality in many other species (in fact, we do). Yes, this doesn’t change anything for your obligate carnivores, but it does caution me about my judgment toward meat-eating humans.
(More on this later.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Geoff for your intelligent responses. The reason Planet Earth is dying is because Homo sapiens cannot face reality. We should be putting all our efforts into saving whatever of The Wild we can, including those millions of wild species going extinct as we speak. To have people who call themselves “vegans” discount this catastrophe–not able to, or refusing to understand the importance of wildness– is disturbing and disgusting. The “proselytizing” by some religious vegans is turning many people off. I now use “plant-based eating” when people ask me about not eating animals.
LikeLike
I tell people that I don’t use any animal products instead of saying “I’m vegan”. Actually I can’t say “plant based eating” coz my diet is not really “plant based”
Sadly so many people make it look like veganism is some sort of an elite club or weird cult 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
perfect! and I am in!
LikeLiked by 1 person