WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANIMAL RIGHTS AND ANIMAL WELFARE—AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
ANIMAL WELFARE OR ANIMAL RIGHTS?
Animal Welfare • Pro-animal ownership; • Recognizes the human-animal bond; • Recognizes the value of quality animal care and purposeful breeding; • Supports advancing science to ensure the health and wellbeing of animals; • Supports the practical and legal concept of animal ownership; • As “owners” of animals (property), we are responsible for their care and have the right to make appropriate care decisions for them.
Animal Rights • Humans should not use or own ani- mals in any way, even as companions;. • Goal is to stop the purposeful breeding and human interation with and use of all animals through providing animals with “person”-type legal rights; • Utilize media and legislation to incre- mentally change practices, ultimately to end animal use and ownership; • Uses animal cruelty focus to mobilize change.
YOUR DOG. YOUR RIGHTS. PROTECT THEM BOTH.
The most radical animal rights groups advocate violence to achieve this goal. The federal government recognizes such activities as animal terrorism. The federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) (18 U.S.C. § 43) outlaws activities for the purpose of damaging or interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise (including educational, agricultural, breeding, and other activities) and causing damage or loss of real or per- sonal property, or placing a person in reasonable fear of injury. More commonly, animal rights takes the form of a political agenda, which uses legislation to advance its anti-animal/anti- breeder goals. As published in Animal People News in 1987, the 12-step agenda of the Animal Rights movement includes the following steps (abridged) taken directly related to our sport: • Enforcement of animal welfare legislation must be trans- ferred from the Department of Agriculture to an agency created for the purpose of protecting animals and the environment; • Prohibit hunting, trapping, and fishing for sport; • Strongly discourage any further breeding of companion animals, including pedigreed or purebred dogs or cats; • End the use of animals in entertainment and sports; • Genetic manipulation of species to produce transgenic animals must be prohibited. (In 1987, genetic manipula- tion meant breeding.) Each of these agenda items appears on a regular basis among the legislation that AKC Government Relations addresses.
“MORE COMMONLY, ANIMAL RIGHTS TAKES THE FORM OF A POLITICAL AGENDA, WHICH USES LEGISLATION TO ADVANCE ITS ANTI-ANIMAL/ ANTI-BREEDER GOALS.”
268 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, MAY 2022
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