Mainstream justice organisations often avoid animal rights altogether. They fear controversy, backlash, or dilution of their 'core message'. But what is a justice movement if it refuses to acknowledge injustice? Justice cannot be partial. It cannot be comfortable. And it certainly cannot be silent. The exclusion of animal rights from mainstream justice movements is not neutral, it is a political decision that reinforces the status quo. It says, some lives matter more. It says, these beings are beneath consideration. It says, you can care about oppression, just not this one.
HERBIVORE CLUB: Intersectionality was meant to recognise the overlapping systems of oppression faced by individuals. Today, the term is often invoked as a buzzword, yet animals are rarely included in these intersections.
This is a glaring failure. The industries that exploit animals are often the same ones that exploit marginalised humans. Slaughterhouse work is disproportionately done by undocumented migrants, people of colour, and the economically disadvantaged. Communities near factory farms face polluted water, noxious air, and increased disease. Animal exploitation is inextricable from environmental racism and labour injustice.
Including animals in justice movements does not weaken the fight for human rights; it strengthens it. It makes our ethical stance consistent. It expands our circle of concern. Yet many refuse this expansion, clinging to the idea that speaking for animals somehow detracts from speaking for humans. In reality, the two are bound together.
Too often, veganism is framed as a diet or lifestyle choice. But at its core, veganism is a political stance: a rejection of the idea that animals exist for human use. It is a commitment to the principle that beings should not be bred, used, and killed against their will.
When people ridicule or dismiss vegan advocacy as “militant” or “preachy,” they are reacting not to tone but to content. They are uncomfortable being reminded that their comfort comes at the cost of another’s suffering. Just like those who once mocked abolitionists, suffragettes, or civil rights activists, they resist change by discrediting the messenger.
Veganism, as part of the animal justice movement, is not separate from human rights, it is a natural extension of it. It asks us to reject all forms of domination, to stop ranking lives by usefulness, species, or sentience. It calls for a world where no one is owned, bred, caged, or killed for someone else’s convenience.
Part of the resistance to animal rights lies in the fragility of human identity. Many fear that by granting moral consideration to non-human animals, we blur the lines between “us” and “them.” This fear is rooted in a need to feel exceptional. To be human, we are taught, is to be above.
This exceptionalism allows humans to commit atrocities while feeling morally upright. It allows us to weep over a dog while eating a pig. To fight for reproductive rights while stealing calves from their mothers. To speak of justice while paying for slaughter.
But this identity is built on a lie. Humans are animals. Sentience does not begin or end with our species. Morality does not require opposable thumbs. And justice does not stop at the edge of humanity.
Mainstream justice organisations often avoid animal rights altogether. They fear controversy, backlash, or dilution of their “core message.” But what is a justice movement if it refuses to acknowledge injustice?
Justice cannot be partial. It cannot be comfortable. And it certainly cannot be silent.
The exclusion of animal rights from mainstream justice movements is not neutral, it is a political decision that reinforces the status quo. It says: some lives matter more. It says: these beings are beneath consideration. It says: you can care about oppression, just not this one…
Animal rights have long been excluded from the wider family of justice movements, not because they are unworthy, but because their inclusion would require a radical rethinking of power, privilege, and identity.
To acknowledge the injustice done to animals is to confront the foundation of human supremacy. It is to question the sandwiches and shoes, the leather and milk, the cages and collars. It is to reject the idea that anyone exists for someone else’s gain.
Until justice movements include the voiceless, the powerless, the commodified billions slaughtered each year, they are incomplete. Real justice has no species limit.
Because if being treated like an animal means being used, ignored, or destroyed, then we must create a world where being treated like an animal means receiving the basic considerations we would all expect.
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