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Andrew Linzey: [It's an] excellent initiative, which has my wholehearted support. I wish that other European countries should follow suit. Incidentally, I think the term "companion animals" is better than "pets" because the word pets can be seen as derogatory. We need a new ethical language to describe animals—one that is consonant with the new burgeoning moral sensitivity.
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Moral sensitivity is extending what are largely anthropocentric ethics to include other sentient creatures, notably mammals and birds. It means simply that we must talk not only of caring for animals, but also treating them with fairness and respect—in other words, extending justice to them. This new sensitivity has given rise to organized animal protection movements in almost every country in the world. If you see my Global Guide to Animal Protection, you will see the foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who argues that we should seek justice and protection for humans and animals alike.Does this new law in the Spanish town represent some kind of shift in the way we, as a society, conceive of animals' moral rights?
It is an important step forward to a more humane world. We are in the middle of a paradigm shift away from the idea that animals are things, tools, machines, commodities, resources for us, [and toward] the idea that all sentient beings have intrinsic value, dignity, and rights.Do you think other towns will adopt similar legislation?
I certainly hope so. Just think how far Spain has already come. Who would have thought 20, 30, 40 years ago that a region of Spain [Catalonia] would ban bullfighting?This is the first town to actually pass a bill like this, but have you ever seen attempts at similar bills before?
There have been attempts to recognize that the great apes have rights, which have met with some success, but this is the first declaration by a locality regarding companion animals.[Editor's note: Several parliaments worldwide now recognize great apes as having "personhood" and extend to them a bill of rights. These bills of rights are a result of the Great Ape Project, an organization that advocates for great apes to have some of the same basic rights granted to humans. Jane Goodall and philosopher Peter Singer are active in the movement.]Is it important to have legally-protected rights?
Yes. Rights language is simply a way of establishing moral limits to what we may do to them. Sometimes people try to ridicule legal rights for animals by saying that animals shouldn't have the right to vote, or to obtain a mortgage, or stand for parliament. But this, of course, is a gross misunderstanding. First and foremost, companion animals should have the right to be animals, to be free from cruelty, abuse, neglect, and unjustifiable killing. Companion animals give humans so much and yet we treat them so badly: We discard them when we don't want them, or fail to meet their health and nutritional needs.Which animals should have a bill of rights? Pets like dogs and cats? Or all animals? How do we decide?
Rights for companion animals is a good place to start, because we owe them so much and they give us so much. But I would go further and include all sentient beings—beings that can experience pain and pleasure—basic rights. Just think: We all now regard children, especially infants, as worth of special moral consideration. The rational grounds for this position is that they are morally innocent, vulnerable, cannot consent, cannot understand, and are relatively defenseless. But if these grounds are strong and rational, as I believe they are, they equally apply to sentient animals since they too are morally blameless, vulnerable, unable to understand and consent and are relatively defenseless.Follow Allegra Ringo on Twitter.