Gary L. Francione

Gary Francione believes that animals have one basic right: the right not to be treated as property.

Gary L. Francione is a law professor at Rutgers University who teaches animal rights theory and animal rights law. He is active in trying to abolish the human institution of using animals as property. Francione advocates ahimsa, the principle of nonviolence, and is opposed to any kind of violent activities.

Francione spent many years fighting legal battles in defense of animals, including the Silver Spring Monkeys case, which was the first animal experimentation case to go to the Supreme Court. He has come to the conclusion that trying to enact useful legislation is not an efficient way to help animals. His position is that more good can be done by becoming vegan and encouraging others to do the same than by trying to change laws. He urges people to form grassroots groups rather than join large organizations.

Francione uses the term abolitionism* to distinguish his philosophy about animal rights from what he refers to as welfarist positions. Animal welfare groups lobby for more humane treatment of animals but do not address what he believes to be the root of the problem, which is the fact that animals are treated as property. Some animal welfarists believe that the lives of nonhuman animals are of lesser moral value than the lives of humans and therefore it is appropriate for humans to use them as resources as long as it is done humanely. Francione disagrees with this view. He favors giving animals legal status as persons and granting them the protections that go along with that status.

Francione believes that veganism should be the baseline of animal rights advocacy. He rejects gateway arguments that suggest that becoming vegetarian or eating only humanely slaughtered animals are steps on the path to becoming vegan. He also rejects arguments that strengthening animal welfare laws will lead to abolition. He believes that strengthening animal welfare laws only strengthens the legitimacy of the institution of treating animals as property. He points out that the animal welfare paradigm has been in place for 200 years and during that time has not moved any closer to granting animals rights as persons. He also argues that laws requiring humane treatment of animals have little effect on their actual welfare, and merely serve to make people feel better about their decision to support the slaughter of animals for their flesh.

Francione was a founding member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). He no longer has anything to do with the organization, and has expressed concerns about the activities of PETA and other large organizations. He dislikes the fact that PETA uses what he considers sexist campaigns, and he disagrees with PETA's euthanization policy. He also disagrees with their honoring companies like Whole Foods for their commitment to the humane treatment of animals, since he feels it sends the wrong message – the message that it's okay to support companies that kill and sell animals.

The Four Problems of Animal Welfare: In a Nutshell

Slide Show on the Property Status of Animals

Gary Francione on Animal Rights

Website

Books

Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? (2000) by Gary L. Francione and Alan Watson

Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement (1996)

Animals, Property, and the Law (1995)

Vivisection and Dissection in the Classroom: A Guide to Conscientious Objection by Gary L. Francione and Anna E. Charlton (1992)

* Not to be confused with other modern abolitionist movements, such as the movement to end modern human slavery, or the abolitionist project which seeks to end all suffering in the living world.

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