Animal rights

THE CASE FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS
By Tom Regan
From: ANIMAL RIGHTS AND HUMAN OBLIGATIONS
Edited by Tom Regan and Peter Singer. Second edition
Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1989
ISBN # 0-13-036864-4
How to proceed? We begin by asking how the moral status of animals has been understood by thinkers who deny that animals have rights. Then we test the mettle of their ideas by seeing how well they stand up under the heat of fair criticism. If we start our thinking in this way we soon find that some people believe that we have no duties directly to animals, that we owe nothing to them that we can do nothing that wrongs them. Rather we can do wrong acts that involve animals and so we have duties regarding them though none to them. Such views may be called indirect duty views. By way of illustration
-- suppose your neighbor kicks your dog. Then your neighbor has done something wrong, but not to your dog. The wrong that has been done is a wrong to you. After all it is wrong to upset people and your neighbor's kicking your dog upsets you so you are the one who is wronged not your dog Or again
-- by kicking your dog your neighbor damages your property. And since it is wrong to damage another person's property, your neighbor has done something wrong -- to you, of course, not to your dog. Your neighbor no more wrongs your dog than your car would be wronged if the windshield were smashed. Your neighbor's duties involving your dog are indirect duties to you.
More generally, all of our duties regarding animals are indirect duties to one another -- to humanity.
How could someone try to justify such a view? Someone might say that your dog doesn't feel anything and so isn't hurt by your neighbor's kick, doesn't care about the pain since none is felt, is as unaware of anything as is your windshield. Someone might say this, but no rational person will, since, among other considerations, such a view will commit anyone who holds it to the position that no