Animal Rights Book Club discussion
Introduction to Animal Rights
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Where has this book been hiding?
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I probably won't be able to jump into the discussion for a couple of days, unfortunately. I'm swamped at work and will be putting in some overtime.
i still haven't finished reading it, and things are going to get busy for me in the coming weeks so i figured i'd share a thought while i still have the time. this isn't the first Francione book i've read so it's a bit repetitive (hence me dragging my feet on the reading), but there was one point that was like a revelation to me: the idea that people act as if all interactions with animals were true emergencies or conflicts. for myself, it's a key to understanding the omnivore justification for speciesism that one will always choose her own species over another. i now see that this is misplaced and unnecessary.
i'm going to try to finish up the book in the coming week. looking forward to reading everyone's comments eventually.
Yes, I loved taking away that message from the book. I think it helps to immediately shoot down those "humans are more important than animals" arguments.When people use this as a justification to exploit animals, it's the same thing as them justifying exploiting other humans just because they would save their own family over strangers in an extreme emergency.
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Second thing... I wish that I had known of this book years ago when I first was interested in veganism. Going through my old blog posts from that time period, I find entries stating "Well... I guess this [Singer:] book is good, as it makes a logical argument against animal use (for the most part), even if it doesn't get into any of the ethics... maybe it will help change some minds...".
Francione goes through great pains to make a very well reasoned, nearly irrefutable argument.