" 

 ==Rights versus liberation== 
 Scales, thanks for your e-mail. I'll talk to you about this later on Thursday on this page, if that's okay with you. Best,    

 ==Introduction== 
 I'm pasting the alternative introductions onto this page so we can take a look at them. Yours is: 
 *Version 1 

 Animal rights is the viewpoint that (non-human) animals have moral rights that prohibit humans from violating their basic interests, and that they ought to have legal rights to protect those interests. 

 The term ""animal rights"" is commonly used as a synonym for ""animal liberation"". However, not all those who favour liberating animals from human domination (e.g. some utilitarians and feminists) believe that the concept of moral rights is the best ethical approach to take. 
 - 

 Mine is: 
 *Version 2 

 The philosophy of animal rights refers to the view that non-human animals ought to have certain basic rights enshrined in law to ensure the protection of their most important interests. 

 Switzerland passed legislation in 1992 recognizing animals as beings, not things, and in 2002, rights for non-human animals were enshrined in the German constitution when its upper house of parliament voted to add the words ""and animals"" to the clause in the constitution obliging the state to respect and protect the dignity of human beings.  The Seattle-based Great Ape Project, founded by Australian philosopher Peter Singer, is campaigning for a United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Great Ape.  

 Some animal-rights theorists argue that animals, like humans, have moral rights, while others take a utilitarian approach. The term ""animal rights"" is therefore more commonly taken to refer to animal liberation, and need not imply that its supporters advocate a rights-based moral philosophy. 

 Most, if not all, animal-rights theorists agree that to regard non-human animals as different in kind from humans, and undeserving of legal rights for that reason, is to be guilty of speciesism, a form of prejudice that, they argue, has no philosophical or biological justification.     

 ==Legal versus moral rights== 
 (Copied with permission from Scales' e-mail to SlimVirgin): 

 I respectfully take issue with your emphasis on legal rights when you say: ""The philosophy of animal rights refers to the view that non-human animals ought to have certain basis [sic] rights enshrined in law to ensure the protection of their most important interests.""  The PHILOSOPHY of animal rights is essentially just that: philosophy, and in particular, a branch of MORAL philosophy: hence, it is primarily about MORAL, not legal, rights  or, in the broader sense of animal liberation, about the equal consideration of interests.  It is perfectly okay to refer to the struggle for legal rights for animals in the article, but that should not be the way the article begins.  The movement to give animals legal rights grows out of the philosophy of animal liberation, including the important branch 
 of it that ascribes moral rights to animals.  First comes moral philosophy, then law.  (Actually, first comes compassion, then moral philosophy, then law.) 

 You say: ""Some animal-rights theorists argue that animals, like humans, have moral rights, while others take a utilitarian approach. The term ""animal rights"" is therefore more commonly taken to refer to animal liberation, and need not imply that its supporters advocate a rights-based moral philosophy.""  I find this way of putting things confusing.  In terms of moral philosophy, NO animal-rights theorists take a utilitarian approach.  Some animal-liberation theorists take a utilitarian approach; others take a rights approach; others take a feminist approach; etc.  I also find it vague or confusing to say that ""'animal rights' is...taken to refer to animal liberation""; rather, the term ""animal rights"" is commonly confused with the broader notion of ""animal liberation"".  

 :Scales, I think there are merits in both versions, so it's just a question of weighing them up here, and perhaps asking for the views of ot