Is Animal Equality a Threat to Human Dignity?

In the English language, though by no means unique in this regard, the word ‘animal’ is largely used in a derogatory sense, meaning uncivilized (as in, ‘they behave like animals’) or worthless (as in, ‘they were treated like animals’). Accordingly, it should come as no surprise that people are often offended when other animals are compared to humans; they feel such comparisons to be a dangerous assault on human dignity. This is, of course, even more so when we equate the two.

What people seem not to realize, however, is that when we demand equal respect for humans and other animals, we do not thereby lower the status of humans, rather, the point is to raise the status of nonhuman animals. In other words, the claim being made is that other animals are also deserving of the same basic moral rights. Would granting fundamental rights to black Americans, for example, diminish the rights of white Americans? Obviously not. Similarly, granting rights to other animals does not imply denying those rights to humans.

Incidentally, those who find such comparisons offensive and obscene ought to consider again what their offense entails. Presumably, they think, ‘How can we compare a human mind to an animal mind!’. Putting aside the fact that we are animals, for it is not so relevant here, this sort of reaction fails to appreciate that the supposed differences between humans and other animals (e.g., capacity to think using abstract concepts and engage in social contracts) are differences which exist between humans as well. That is, there are many humans who do not have the foregoing capacities; and yet, who seriously thinks, ‘How can we compare ‘normal’ humans with these humans!’. It is therefore not obscene to compare the suffering of nonhuman animals to that of humans, any more than it is to compare the suffering of humans without specific capacities to that of humans with those capacities. To insist that merely belonging to a certain species makes an individual more or less valuable than another is plain speciesism, and is as irrational as any other form of discrimination.