Abstract

The question of the moral status of animals is one of the most controversial and difficult issues in contemporary ethics. Our moral intuitions regarding the treatment of animals are complex and diverse. Our actual behavior towards animals oscillates between extreme forms of instrumentalisation on the one hand and emotional attachment on the other. The present article sketches the main lines of the debate about the moral status of animals. It first addresses the question of animal awareness. It argues that the denial of animal awareness on philosophical and scientific grounds is unwarranted. The article then presents and evaluates the different ethical arguments for and against animal liberation and animal rights, including the feminist critique of the whole debate in terms of the consistent application of ethical principals or universal rights. The conclusion points out that the possibility of a mixed community where humans respect the needs of their fellow-animals requires that we give up animal husbandry