Dear Colleagues: Here are some simple thoughts that embody the abolitionist approach and philosophy. They may be useful to you in your own thinking about things as well as in your discussion with others: 1. Speciesism is morally objectionable because, like racism, sexism, and heterosexism, it links personhood with an irrelevant criterion. Explanation: We do […]
Dear Colleagues: Donald Watson (1910-2005), co-founder of the Vegan Society in the U.K. and the person who coined the term “vegan” in response to the consumption and use of dairy and other animal products by “vegetarians,” was a remarkable person who was very far ahead of his time. In 2002, George D. Rodger of the […]
Dear Colleagues: Would Martin Luther King have had an “I’d Rather Go Naked than Sit in the Back of the Bus” campaign? Of course not. He would have recognized that such a campaign would trivialize the important message of civil rights. Why don’t animal advocates recognize that sexist campaigns similarly trivialize the issue of animal […]
There is a great deal of discussion about what “vegan” means. “Veganism” means at the very least not eating any flesh, dairy, or other animal products. In this sense, “vegan” means “vegan diet.” Donald Watson, who originally coined the term “vegan” used the word in this way when he made statements such as: “Wherever Man […]
Dear Colleagues: There are some advocates who claim to be abolitionists but who support welfare reform or who support violence. In this Commentary, I explain why welfare reform and violence cannot fit into the abolitionist approach. Gary L. Francione ©2009 Gary L. Francione
Dear Colleagues: For two decades now, I have argued that using sexism and misogyny supposedly to promote animal rights is a very bad idea. Perpetuating the commodification of women is not only inherently immoral but will do nothing to change social thinking about the commodification of nonhumans. PETA has been doing various versions of the […]
Dear Colleagues: I refer to the delusional and confused way that we think about animals as a social/moral matter as constituting “moral schizophrenia.” I had a recent encounter with moral schizophrenia in dealing with a deer who had been hit by a car and the hunters who stopped to help the deer. In this Commentary, […]
Dear Colleagues: As you know, I am opposed to all violence. See, e.g., A Commentary on Violence (podcast), A Comment on Violence, More on Violence and Animal Rights, and On Vivisection and Violence. That has been a consistent theme in my work for many years. I oppose all violence—including violence against property. Those who claim […]
Dear Colleagues: The abolitionist approach maintains that ethical veganism is a moral baseline; it represents the recognition of the moral personhood of animals and the rejection of the notion that animals are commodities for human use. Ethical veganism is an essential component of a commitment to non-violence. The new welfarist approach rejects veganism as a […]
Dear Colleagues: Our first Commentary about vegetarianism as a “gateway” to veganism has provoked continuing controversy and in this Commentary, I address three issues: 1. Does my position that we cannot draw a moral distinction between flesh and other animal products mean that we ought to be confrontational or judgmental when we talk to people […]