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Consider whether any animals other than humans could be given rights or other fundamental protections by modern legal systems. This question goes beyond the anti-cruelty protections found in virtually every moral code and statutory scheme, and also beyond the species-level protections offered by some environmental legislation. The question is, rather, could individual animals other than humans plausibly be the direct, primary beneficiaries of legally enforced protections such as the right to remain alive and free from the domination of humans?
The question is invited by two distinct features of the world in which we live. The first feature is our ability to care about "others": the fact that many societies have included nonhuman animals within their moral circle makes it clear that humans can, if we choose to do so, include some non-human animals as direct beneficiaries of socially sanctioned protections. The question is also invited by the facts of other animals' lives. Some other animals, most obviously those with large brains, familial allegiances, social ties and complex communication systems, have lives that are, in important respects, very much like the lives that we as humans live. It is, as a logical matter, obvious that non-human individuals with at least these features can be protected very high levels by our legal system even though they are non-human.
But even if the realities of some human living beings invite our moral to this simple, natural question about malised protections for them, the about legal protections for any animal will seem odd to some, perhaps an irreverent or frivolous imposition in forum where global dialogue is the goal. missal of the underlying issue of other mals' moral importance is common, driven human-centred values that dominate law, economics and development. much political and religious discourse, not mention many humans' daily exchanges, forward on the assumption that the non-human animals exist for the sake and of the world's human animals.
The basic question - the animal as it were - remains, however, for it is an nently human question and is now being widely. It can be found in legal opinions the Indian subcontinent, policy debates New Zealand, and scholarly debate in circles. It is explicit in many NGO ernmental organisation) concerns, and it implicit in much environmental,...