Credo possa contribuire alla discussione, visto che molte delle argomentazioni risultano essere ormai stereotipate e quindi già affrontate anche da grandi esperti e teorici della questione sui diritti animali.

Posto una lista di tipici argomenti e risposte relative, tratto dal libro Gabbie Vuote (EMPTY CAGES) dell'ottimo Tom Regan...di cui consiglio I Diritti Animali (garzanti 1990), ...anche agli scettici che spesso parlano senza avere una chiara idea di come affrontare la questione.

Some Objections, Some Replies

Many are the objections raised against animal rights. While each is well intended, none withstands critical examination. It is to be recalled that the rights in question are the moral rights to bodily integrity and to life. Here, briefly, are the most important objections and my replies.

1. Objection: Animals do not understand what rights are. Therefore, they have no rights.

Reply: The children of Willowbrook, all children for that matter, do not understand what rights are. Yet we do not deny rights in their case, for this reason. To be consistent, we cannot deny rights for animals, for this reason .

2. Objection: Animals do not respect our rights. For example, lions sometimes kill innocent people. Therefore, they have no rights.

Reply: Children sometimes kill innocent people. Yet we do not deny rights in their case, for this reason. To be consistent, we cannot deny rights for animals, for this reason.

3. Objection: Animals do not respect the rights of other animals. For example, lions kill wildebeests. Therefore, they have no rights.

Reply: Children do not always respect the rights of other children; sometimes they kill them. Yet we do not deny rights in their case, for this reason. To be consistent, we cannot deny rights for animals, for this reason.

4. Objection: If animals have rights, it follows that we will need to make arrangements for them to vote, marry, file for divorce, and immigrate, for example, which is absurd. Therefore, animals have no rights.

Reply: Yes, this is absurd; but these absurdities do not follow from claiming rights to life and bodily integrity in the case of animals any more than they follow from recognizing the rights of the children of Willowbrook, for example.

5. Objection: If animals have rights, then mosquitoes and roaches have rights. This would make it wrong to kill them, which is absurd. Therefore, animals have no rights.

Reply: Not all animals have rights because some animals do. In particular, neither mosquitoes nor roaches have the kind of physiological complexity associated with being a subject of a life. In their, case, therefore, we have no good reason to believe that they have rights, even while we have abundantly good reason to believe that other animals (mammals in particular) do.

6. Objection: If animals have rights, then so do plants, which is absurd.
Therefore, animals have no rights.

Reply: “Plant rights” do not follow from animal rights. We have no reason to believe, and abundant reason to deny, that carrots and cabbages are subjects of a life. We have abundantly good reason to believe, and no good reason to deny, that mammals are. That is the morally relevant difference. In claiming rights for animals, therefore, we are not committed to claiming rights for plants.

7. Objection: Human beings are closer to us than animals are; we have special relations to them. Therefore, animals have no rights.

Reply: We do have special relations to humans that we do not have to other animals. We also have special relations to our family and friends that we do not have to other human beings. But we do not conclude that other humans do not have rights, for this reason. To be consistent, we cannot deny rights for animals, for this reason.

8. Objection: Only human beings live in a moral community where rights are understood. Therefore, all human beings, and only human beings, have rights.

Reply: At least among terrestrial forms of life, only human beings live in a moral community in which rights are understood. But it does not follow that only human beings have rights. It is also true that, at least among terrestrial forms of life, only human beings live in a scientific community in which genes are understood. But we do not conclude that therefore only human beings have genes. Neither should we conclude that only human beings have rights.

9. 9. Objection: Animals have some rights to bodily integrity and life, but the rights they have are not equal to human rights. Therefore, human vivisection is wrong, but animal vivisection is not.

Reply: This objection begs the question; it does not answer it. What morally relevant reason is there for thinking that humans have greater rights than animals? Certainly it cannot be any of the reasons examined in 1-8. But if not any of them, then what? The argument does not say.

The objections just reviewed have been considered because they are the most important, not because they are the least convincing. Their failure, individually and collectively, goes some way towards suggesting the logical inadequacy of the anti-animal rights position. Morality is not mathematics certainly. In morality, there are no proofs like those we find in geometry. What we can find, and what we must live with, are principles and values that have the best reasons, the best arguments on their side. The principles and values that pass this test, whether most people accept them or not, are the ones that should guide our lives. Given this reasonable standard, the principles and values of animal rights should guide our lives.