Animal Liberation

An argument for taking animal suffering seriously, written for a general audience. The first chapter argues that the principle of equal consideration of interests, which condemns racism and sexism, also applies across species. Following Bentham, Singer holds that the capacity to suffer is what gives a being interests; giving less weight to an animal's suffering simply because it belongs to another species is "speciesism", a prejudice like racism. Two long chapters then document the use of animals in laboratory experiments and on factory farms, describing confinement, mutilation and slaughter. A practical chapter makes the case for becoming vegetarian. The book closes with a history of Western attitudes to animals, from the Bible and Aristotle through Christianity and Descartes, and a reply to common objections. Critics include those who deny that animals have equal moral standing, and rights theorists who reject its utilitarian basis.

It helped launch the modern animal liberation movement and made speciesism a familiar idea, and its central argument is still the one any defender of eating or experimenting on animals must answer.