{"id":780258,"date":"2026-01-12T09:03:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=780258"},"modified":"2026-01-12T09:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:46:12","slug":"roger-yates-the-welfare-grip-is-too-tight-for-animal-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=780258","title":{"rendered":"Roger Yates: The welfare grip is too tight for animal rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Regan, author in 1983 of the ground-breaking ‘The Case for Animal Rights’, was the prominent animal rights voice in a debate aired on BBCTV to an estimated audience of 1 million people. Most people in the modern animal movement have little or no idea who Tom Regan was, let alone how to make the case for animal rights. Instead, animal advocates seem to think that \u2018animal rights\u2019 involves pointing to graphic images and calling out the \u2018cruelty\u2019 and \u2018abuse\u2019 they portray. Look at the language of the vast majority of animal organizations or\u00a0 modern \u2018vegan influencers.\u2019 They are drenched in welfarism: they sound little different then the RSPCA.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ROGER YATES:<\/strong> More than 40 years later, the global \u2018animal rights movement\u2019 has failed miserably… In the 1980s, Tom Regan, author in 1983 of the ground-breaking ‘The Case for Animal Rights, was being listened to – before the animal welfare movement marginalized and effectively silenced him. In 1989, Regan was the prominent animal rights voice in a debate aired on BBCTV to an estimated audience of 1 million people…<\/em><\/p>\n

Most people in the modern animal movement have little or no idea who Tom Regan was, let alone how to make the case for animal rights. Instead, animal advocates seem to think that \u2018animal rights\u2019 involves pointing to graphic images and calling out the \u2018cruelty\u2019 and \u2018abuse\u2019 they portray.<\/em><\/p>\n

Look at the language of the vast majority of animal organizations, large or small – or the language of any of the modern \u2018vegan influencers.\u2019 They are drenched in welfarism: they sound little different to how the RSPCA sounds, apart from the incoherent \u2018go vegan\u2019 tags they include. What is the main language of the \u2018animal rights movement\u2019 in the 21st century? It’s RSPCA language: Don’t be Cruel, Have Mercy, Don’t Abuse (Other) Animals, Be an Animal Lover…<\/em><\/p>\n

Being \u2018kind\u2019 to our fellow animals is an RSPCA slogan. In 1996, in Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement, law professor Gary Francione wrote: \u201cThe need to distinguish animal rights from animal welfare is clear not only because of the theoretical inconsistencies between the two positions but also because the most ardent defenders of institutionalised animal exploitation themselves endorse animal welfare”…<\/em><\/p>\n

Francione is correct – virtually everyone one asks will declare themselves totally opposed to \u2018animal cruelty\u2019 and believe that \u2018kindness to animals\u2019 is an important value. However, within speciesist culture, such socialised values have absolutely no connection with living vegan or with the concept of animal rights. We have not been able to move the public on from their opposition to animal cruelty to a position of respecting the moral rights of our fellow animals. And, as Tom Regan would argue, violating the rights of other animals is the fundamental wrong…<\/em><\/p>\n

There is no obvious or immediate moral connection between the welfare language of the movement and the public coming to the conclusion that they should \u2018go vegan’… A socialised commitment to animal welfarism simply means that the public’s solution is to eliminate the animal cruelty and the animal abuse (which they already oppose, and which our language suggests is our main priority too). They have these welfarist thoughts in their minds but without thinking they must oppose animal exploitation and use – the vegan animal rights message. SOURCE<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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