Because animals are property, we consider as "humane treatment" that we would regard as torture if it were inflicted on humans.
Gary L. FrancioneVeganism is an act of nonviolent defiance. It is our statement that we reject the notion that animals are things and that we regard sentient nonhumans as moral persons with the fundamental moral right not to be treated as the property or resources of humans.
Gary L. Francione...eating animals involves an intentional decision to participate in the suffering and death of nonhumans where there is no plausible moral justification.
Gary L. FrancioneNone of that is necessary. It's not as if we're in a situation where it is us or them.There's something peculiar about talking about the moral status of animals, when we are killing and eating them for no reason whatsoever.
Gary L. FrancioneWe proclaim human intelligence to be morally valuable per se because we are human. If we were birds, we would proclaim the ability to fly as morally valuable per se. If we were fish, we would proclaim the ability to live underwater as morally valuable per se. But apart from our obviously self-interested proclamations, there is nothing morally valuable per se about human intelligence.
Gary L. Francione