sam's vegan diner

In her pleasantly (and here, appropriately) anecdotal style, Maggie Jones presents a mostly agreeable roundup of animal rights themes and issues surrounding California’s Proposition 2.  

I kind of have to pick on this one odd excerpt, a quote from Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle.

Pacelle … now prefers the term “animal protection” to “animal rights,” which he says is laden with “a lot of baggage.” The implication of the animal rights rhetoric is that animals have “an intrinsic right,” he says. “But it’s really about human behavior and the responsibility we have toward animals.”

“Rhetoric?”  That’s a little condescending.  Jones calls this a “more-palatable mainstream message,” (pun intended?) but I have to disagree.  I will never be a member of the “animal protection” movement; that terminology just doesn’t fit.  Humans are not the protectors of all other species or, more broadly, of nature.  It is certainly about intrinsic rights, and the muddled notion of a democratic liberal society dedicated to reducing cruelty and invoking justice that should guarantee those rights.

(Image via the NYT Magazine)