ANIMAL RIGHTS WATCH

When Kindness Becomes a Crime: Violence against animal-lovers in Turkey

When people are punished, beaten, or threatened for caring for stray animals, it sends a chilling message: that kindness can be criminalized. If unchecked, this will silence kindness and drive caregivers away. Protecting animal defenders is essential for a humane society. Compassion must never be treated as a crime… In a disturbing incident in Ankara, a woman was beaten because she was caring for stray cats in her apartment building’s garden. Her nose was broken, and she had been repeatedly threatened and harassed for years. This shocking story is not an isolated one. Rather, it offers a painful window into […]

‘The Arrogant Ape’: A strong case against human superiority

Human exceptionalism lies at the root of the ecological crisis. This pervasive mindset gives humans a sense of dominion over the rest of nature, entitling us to exploit the earth and other species for our own exclusive benefit. And it is everywhere and nowhere all at once — so deeply embedded in society that most people barely notice it. It gets reinforced through our education systems, economic schemes, political campaigns, religious sermons, advertising, media, and even everyday language. MARC BEKOFF: In her landmark book, ‘The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It Matters’, Dr. Christine Webb makes […]

STUDY: Naturalized Rights of Animals, Animalized Rights of Nature

The ‘Rights of Nature’ movement is growing quickly worldwide, while animal rights is advancing at a much slower pace. Animals are part of nature — in any commonsense definition of nature and also according to a number of courts around the world. This offers a new path for advancing animal rights. MACARENA MONTES FRANCESCHINI: In this Article, the authors argue that animal rights and rights of nature can and should find synergistic connections to tackle some of the most significant planetary threats today, notably, industrial animal agriculture. Until a landmark 2022 decision of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, no court […]