Heather Lainhart

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Professor Fredrickson
AGR 125
07 September 2014
Animal Welfare
The animal rights and animal welfare debate has gone on for years, with both sides
competing with each other and the different agricultural practices that they wish to put an end to
and wish to change. The author expresses both sides and points out the difference between the
two, very early in the first few paragraphs.
The animal rights group is an organization that gives animals the same rights as humans
and associates them with having anthropomorphism while animal welfare is, "...well-being and
care in its biological sense." Both of these organizations have been debated to be joined together,
but the opinions force the two apart, stating that both are working for different causes, but for the
same goal.
Animal rights is the philosophy, sociology, and public policy of animals in society and
how they are treated, with the view that no animal has the right to be used by any human for any
purpose. The author goes on to point out some rightists give animals the reserve rights that
normally go to humans in certain societies, but on the other hand the group works to end animal
suffering around the world.
Those who are vegans, or vegetarians, are a large part of this group. They choose to
boycott animal products and support laws that govern animal agriculture, research, racing, rodeo

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and hunting respectively. This group, the author believes, will further its reach and make laws at
the national and state level.
The animal rights group regulate certain animal activity like those listed above, but some
in the organization believe that animal research is acceptable, but use of animals at rodeos are
not. The separating line is blurred between what is acceptable and what is not and the author
expresses that in the way he or she separates the two different advocates.
There are two different sets of advocates in both animal welfare and animal rights;
reformists and abolitionists. The reformists are those that want to change methods of animal use
without violence, such as PETA, while the abolitionists want to abandon total use of animals in
society, with in some cases, violence.
Animal welfare is the well-being and care of animals by humans, in which the humans
provide food, water, shelter, protection, and health care, while the animal provides for the
human. The author distinguishes the two with the fact that welfare relates to caring for the
animal and it does involve the rights that animals have.
The author seems like he or she supports animal welfare more than animal rights, and
offers more examples and discussion concerning welfare. By reading the entire chapter, the
author seems indifferent at times and informative at others, while quoting Bernard Rollin various
times.
The author's tone, instead of language, suggests that animal rights be equal to animal
welfare and that the old "family farm of 60 years ago" knew more about how to raise and care for
animals than the "factory farming" of today. The advice I would give to this author is to make the

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tone more reader-oriented and less defensive against the organizations that he or she is writing
about. Without this flaw, the chapter would be more informative of both groups and discuss both
equally, without siding with one certain group.