Discrimination against non-human species

Human prejudice against other animals
Speciesism
Species prejudice

Nature

Homo sapiens has a tendency to assume itself to be overwhelmingly superior to all other species, having the right to kill, mutilate and enslave the others at will. Speciesism has been defined as the high barrier placed by man between the human species and all the rest of the animal species.

Background

Discrimination against non-human species, often termed speciesism, emerged as a recognized global concern in the 1970s, notably following the publication of Peter Singer’s "Animal Liberation" (1975). The issue gained traction as scientific understanding of animal sentience expanded and international animal welfare movements grew. Increasing documentation of industrialized animal exploitation, biodiversity loss, and legal debates over animal rights have since intensified scrutiny, prompting worldwide ethical, legal, and philosophical discussions on humanity’s treatment of other species.

Incidence

Discrimination against non-human species is evident on a global scale, manifesting in practices such as industrial farming, animal testing, habitat destruction, and legal systems that prioritize human interests over animal welfare. Billions of animals are affected annually, with their interests routinely disregarded in policy-making, commerce, and cultural traditions. This widespread phenomenon has significant ethical, ecological, and social implications, making it a matter of international concern.
In 2022, the mass culling of over 50 million poultry in the United States due to avian influenza outbreaks highlighted the systemic disregard for non-human species’ welfare, as economic and public health priorities overshadowed animal interests.

Claim

Speciesism is analogous to sexism or racism. It is a distinction made between individuals that is arbitrary and indefensible. It is fallacious to argue that faculties such as reason and language create a higher moral plane on which man relates to man when such rights are extended in practice to the morally innocent such as babies or the mentally handicapped. Just as such people are not denied the rights to moral treatment by their condition, the same should apply to animals. Furthermore, what is known of human suffering is also true of animal suffering, with the added moral imperative that animals are unable to defend themselves.

More than five decades of fundamental discoveries on the brain and behavioural evidence for consciousness has shown no difference so far between humans and other mammals. Species differences such as the size of neocortex appear to be irrelevant to waking and perceptual consciousness. The burden of proof for the absence of subjectivity in mammals should therefore be placed on the skeptics.

Most humans are speciesist. They assume it is acceptable to discriminate against non-human animals merely because they belong to a different species. Speciesism is a prejudice akin to racism and sexism. Those prejudices involve discrimination by a dominant group against a weaker one based on morally arbitrary characteristics.

We should adopt a moral principle of equal consideration of interests, that applies regardless of species. If it is wrong to cause a human being to suffer, it should be equally wrong to cause a nonhuman animal to suffer to a similar extent.