Rating: 
Summary: Neither Child Nor Dog
Review: Animal rights today usually conjures images of sensational campaigning by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), raucous protests and a variety of soundbytes that often pit humans against animals. Gary L. Francione's newest text: "Introduction to Animal Rights - Your Child or the Dog?" tackles this issue, demonstrating that such false choices are inaccurate and have little to do with our duty to "apply the principle of equal consideration to animal interests in not suffering." Given the current mind-boggling volume of animal exploitation in vivisection, factory farming and fur production - to name just three instances of animal usage - Francione argues that we have a duty-bound obligation to include and protect the interests of beings who are sentient in exactly the same way that characterizes our species. Francione surveys our "moral schizophrenia" - on the one hand claiming en masse that we do not support unnecessary animal suffering but on the other eating and wearing animals - and demonstrates lucidly why a moral revolution is the fulcrum for halting this completely unjustifiable situation. I unhesitatingly recommend this book not only to animal activists, but to anyone concerned with ethics and ethical theory. Ultimately, this is not so much a study of non-human animals but an indictment of yet another example of historically-laden prejudice that crumbles under the very reasonable demand for justification.
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Summary: I want to discuss
Review: Dear Gary L. Francione:I am a Chinese,and thank you for the reaserch of ANIMAL RIGHT. As a Animal-lover, I found it is very necessary to study the live lifies which are different in estate, forestand so on. A corporation can be regarded an artifical man which have some rights as people have. Why to Animals we have not consider. Now I am very intreased in the area, if can, I can discuss with you for ever in internet. Your sincerely, zzd
Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Review: Finally! Here is a clear, articulate and complete book about animal rights. I can give this book to anyone I know without apology or reservation -and not feel I have to fill in any blanks. As Alan Watson noted in the forward, "Francione's work defines the standard in this area of inquiry." Anyone who cares at all about social justice will smell the clean air of truth in this analysis. Francione provides a crisp lens to assist sincere readers in sharpening their focus and their resolve to live in a manner that is consistent with the values we all claim to embrace. He brings together philosophical, moral, ethical and practical considerations to the often simplistically put-- but basic and common arguments for using animals for human purposes. In the meantime Francione reveals his own heart and humor even as he furthers his own unconditional advocacy for justice for animals. This book is required reading for any social justice activist.
Rating: 
Summary: Francione not realistic and nor constructive
Review: Francione's premise is that animal's status as property allows egregious abuse for convenience sake. This is true, but convincing people that every animal should not be property would be much harder than simply eliminating most of the abuses themselves. The probability of convincing even a sizeable minority of Francione's "all or nothing" dogma is virtually zero. If his is the only road to a better life for the animals, then non-human beings are doomed. I believe Peter Singer's Animal Liberation is the more realistic philosphy, which spawned a booming movement in the late 70s and 80s. Singer's follow-up book Ethics in Action, (biography of successful Animal Rights activist, the late Henry Spira), gives the tactical instruction that activists need to get animal advocacy into the mainstream.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!!
Review: Francione's theory of animal rights forces us to make a choice: either we acknowledge that animals are morally equivalent to inanimate objects and we have no moral obligations that we owe them directly, or animals are members of the moral community to whom we have direct moral obligations. This second option does not require that we regard animals as the same as humans or regard animals as having the same rights as humans--it only requires that we regard animal interests as having moral significance. Francione argues that if we take this second approach--an approach that most of us accept already--we are committed to the abolition, and not the regulation, of animal exploitation. Francione's central argument--that the moral significance of animal interests precludes the use of animals as human property--presents a theory of animal rights that is more radical than either Tom Regan's approach in The Case for Animal Rights or Peter Singer's approach in Animal Liberation. Moreover, Francione's theory applies to all sentient nonhumans; he does not create another hierarchy of "special" animals, as is done in The Great Ape Project or other derivative works that accord special moral value to animals who are "like us." Francione's argument is that sentience is the only characteristic that matters for moral significance, and that any sentient being must have one right--the right not to be the property of others--if that being is to have any moral status whatsoever. Francione also makes clear that just as in the case of human slavery, it will not be the legal system that will end the property status of animals; significant social change will have to occur first. For Francione, the interesting question is not whether the cow should be able to sue the farmer for a violation of the cow's rights; the interesting question is why we have the cow there in the first place. The book is clearly written and easy to understand.
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Summary: A book for all species
Review: Gary Francione has done it again - Prof. Francione's new book should be the benchmark for all books on animal rights. I have read his previous works on animal rights, and I have throughly enjoyed them all, but his latest work is the best one yet. The difference between his previous works and this new book is his diagnosis. He states that we humans have a moral schizophrenia about animals; that we humans agree that it is morally wrong to impose suffering on animals, on the other hand, we continue to impose suffering on animals on a daily basis. There is a disparity between what we say about animals and how we actually treat them, Prof. Francione says. The cure, Prof. Francione prescribes, is one of two treatments. One, is we can continue to permit the infliction of suffering on animals for virtually any purpose that provides a benefit to us, or, we can can maintain that animals have morally significant interests in not being subjected to unnecessary suffering. This second option requires that we rethink the moral status of animals and include them in our moral community. Prof. Francione is clearly in favor of the latter choice. Prof. Francione adds a very neat and helpful feature at the end of his book, in the Appendix - Twenty Questions and Answers that he has been confronted with over the nearly two decades he has been involved with the animal rights movement. Those Q & A's help demonstrate how the theory of animal rights can be applied in everyday life. Prof. Francione is the world's leading scholar on animal legal issues and once again he continues to blaze a trail for the rest of us to follow.
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Summary: Francione Has the Quintessential Blueprint for Abolition
Review: Gary Francione has published the simplified version of AR --the one that explains the basics of what works (and what doesn't). He validates the path I chose after decades of trying to work with, around, and over welfarist activities which only further entrenched nonhuman animals into the circle "use, abuse, regulation, enforcement, use, abuse, on and on." He addresses the confusion surrounding application of the equal consideration principle. Property (current status of animals) and humans (holding legal personhood) will always be treated differently -since property has no value except as it relates to the human owner, ending the property status of nonhumans, indeed ending animal domestication altogether, is where we must start.
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Summary: Francione not realistic and nor constructive
Review: Gary Francione is the pre-eminent scholar on the topic of animal rights. If one was not already convinced of this by his body of work on the subject, this new book surely proves it. In it, Francione has synthesized ideas that he introduced to us years ago, and that he has persisted in writing and thinking about ever since. He presents an idea that is seemingly complex in a neat, comprehensible and embarassingly persuasive argument. Embarassing because the logic is so clear that one is left wondering how it wasn't completely obvious from the start. An animal has the right not to be treated like a thing. It's that simple, not the right to vote or get a good eduction, but the right not to be considered merely human property, or to be used as means that serve human ends. Francione shows clearly why "animal rights" has nothing to do with treating animals "humanely", whatever that might mean. It is about treating animals honestly, in accordance with what we already say we believe they are entitled to. Twenty years ago, "animal rights" was a term that most people had never heard of. Today, because of people like Francione, that is no longer the case. However, the fact that the term has entered the mainstream and become the subject of common parlance also means that it is sometimes misunderstood, even by those who claim to be its advocates. After reading Francione's latest book, there can be no mistake about what animal rights is and why it is desperately needed. Francione comes to the subject with intellectual honesty and he is one of a very few who has the courage to take his argument, and all of its component parts, to their logical conclusion. There can also be no doubt, for all the bloody reasons Francione points out, that the societal recognition of animal rights is inevitable and that it is long past time to begin the implementation.
Rating:
Summary: The Case is Complete
Review: Gary Francione is the pre-eminent scholar on the topic of animal rights. If one was not already convinced of this by his body of work on the subject, this new book surely proves it. In it, Francione has synthesized ideas that he introduced to us years ago, and that he has persisted in writing and thinking about ever since. He presents an idea that is seemingly complex in a neat, comprehensible and embarassingly persuasive argument. Embarassing because the logic is so clear that one is left wondering how it wasn't completely obvious from the start. An animal has the right not to be treated like a thing. It's that simple, not the right to vote or get a good eduction, but the right not to be considered merely human property, or to be used as means that serve human ends. Francione shows clearly why "animal rights" has nothing to do with treating animals "humanely", whatever that might mean. It is about treating animals honestly, in accordance with what we already say we believe they are entitled to. Twenty years ago, "animal rights" was a term that most people had never heard of. Today, because of people like Francione, that is no longer the case. However, the fact that the term has entered the mainstream and become the subject of common parlance also means that it is sometimes misunderstood, even by those who claim to be its advocates. After reading Francione's latest book, there can be no mistake about what animal rights is and why it is desperately needed. Francione comes to the subject with intellectual honesty and he is one of a very few who has the courage to take his argument, and all of its component parts, to their logical conclusion. There can also be no doubt, for all the bloody reasons Francione points out, that the societal recognition of animal rights is inevitable and that it is long past time to begin the implementation.
Rating:
Summary: A Book Whose Time Has Come
Review: Introduction to Animal Rights is the most straightforward, accessible introduction to the subject I have read. To put this remark into context, I have studied the issue for 17 years and have also published in this area. Those who are new to the topic will find a perfect entrance here. Those who have read other works will find refreshing directness and confidence in Francione's newest book. At first, I was surprised at some of the criticisms levelled at Francione from people with an interest in animal rights -- people, one would think, with every reason to applaud Francione's no-nonsense approach to the matter. Examples of such criticism are contained in a couple of the reviews we see on this page. But there is really no cause for astonishment. In all movements for social progress, there are people who claim to support change, yet insist that the direct, straightforward approach is impractical, and that one can't fight City Hall. Introduction to Animal Rights might worry such people. Professor Alan Watson, the renowned slavery scholar, predicts that Francione's book "will be a turning point in the way we, as humans, regard animals and how our attitudes translate into the way that we treat them." To be achieved, such a paradigm change must first be conceived. Introduction to Animal Rights accomplishes this. This book has my highest recommendation. Lee Hall, Attorney at Law.
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