Policy Press

What Are Animal Rights For?

By Steve Cooke

Published

Oct 3, 2023

Page count

160 pages

Browse the series

What Is It For?

ISBN

978-1529228410

Dimensions

203 x 127 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Oct 3, 2023

Page count

160 pages

Browse the series

What Is It For?

ISBN

978-1529228427

Dimensions

203 x 127 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Oct 3, 2023

Page count

160 pages

Browse the series

What Is It For?

ISBN

978-1529228427

Dimensions

203 x 127 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press
What Are Animal Rights For?

How should we treat animals? The long-held belief that other animals exist solely for human use has undergone radical challenge in the past half century. How much further do we need to go to minimize, and even eliminate, animal suffering?

The field of animal rights raises big questions about how humans treat the other animals with which we share the planet. These questions are becoming more pressing as livestock farming exerts an ever-greater toll on the planet and the animals themselves, and we learn more about their capacity to think and experience pain. This book shows why animals ought to have greater rights and what the world might look like if they did.

Steve Cooke is Associate Professor of Political Theory at the University of Leicester. Previously, he held positions on animal rights theory and environmental politics at the University of Sheffield and Keele University and was the Society for Applied Philosophy’s 30th Anniversary Postdoctoral Fellow for a project on animal rights and environmental terrorism.

1. Introduction

2. A Brief Intellectual History of Animal Rights

3. Rights, Interests and Choices

4. Case Studies: Animals in the Farm, Home, Zoo and Lab

5. Emerging issues: From Mollusc Rights to Animal Citizens

6. Engaging the Imagination: Turning Prejudice into Compassion

7. Conclusion: Beyond Animal Rights?