Posted on 12/16/2014 11:01:01 AM PST by Kaslin
What if domestic animals — pets such as dogs and cats as well livestock like cows and chickens — were granted citizenship rights? That may sound like a crazy question, but Canadian philosopher Will Kymlicka thinks it's a critically important one.
Kymlicka, a professor at Queen's University, is a well-regarded figure in modern political philosophy. He's also the author, along with writer Sue Donaldson, of Zoopolis, a book making the case for animal citizenship. Their basic premise is simple: animals are already part of our society, as pets and work animals, therefore we should formally recognize them as such.
That's not just a head-in-the-clouds thought experiment. We already have basic laws forbidding animal abuse and regulating industrial slaughterhouses. But, as anyone who has visited an animal shelter or thought about the ethics of what they eat can attest, we as a society have not come anywhere close to solving the problem of animal mistreatment. If we really want to improve animals' lives, Kymlicka and Donaldson argue, we need to stop thinking in terms of merely treating animals better. Rather, we need to acknowledge on a fundamental level that animals are a part of society and deserve to be treated as such. That leads you, however improbable it might sound, to citizenship.
Kymlicka and I chatted over the phone about why he believes we ought to make animals citizens, how that would work in practice, and what a world in which animals have equal rights would look like. What follows is a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
Zack Beauchamp: The idea of animal citizenship sounds a bit strange. What does it mean for a dog to be a citizen? What rights do they get?
Will Kymlicka: The first idea is that we've brought dogs and other domesticated animals into our society. That's a decision we have made — to domesticate animals — and the very term domestication indicates that's process of incorporating them into our world. So we need to ask: what do we owe them in virtue of the fact that we've brought them into our world?
We owe them membership. We need to recognize domesticated animals as members of our society. And citizenship is the legal and political term that we have historically used to recognize membership. The ways in which humans stake claims to membership is by staking claims to citizenship. It's our legal and political tool for recognizing it.
It’s ridiculous
The North American Mad Dog Love Association is about to come out of the closet!
Perfect question
What about horses, cats, ferrets, and hampsters?
Only in America 2014 AD. We elected the imbecile in the White House didn’t we?
We really, REALLY need different titles for those possessing real degrees.*
Are you casting aspersions upon the learned professor?
Don't you know that among his many titles, He is the King of Town as well as a poopsmith!?
Dogs can understand perfectly well what a human being says. They are as close to an animal that can understand human language as exists upon this earth.
Mine will vote conservative or they’ll loose their spot on the couch.
“Some animals are more equal than others”
Do you have a reference for that statistic. Google doesn’t seem to want to go there.
sure..then they’ll be elligible for welfare
Liberals believe that George Orwell’s satire “Animal Farm” should be taken at face value.
If my GSD barks at a black person and refuses to allow him onto my property, will he be called a racist?
My boy was shipped here from Germany, there isn’t any American blood in him and I bought him. While he is a buddy, I do give him jobs to do and thus he is a servant....will I someday owe him reparations?
I am okay with him becoming a citizen, as long as I can use him as a tax deduction and the government agrees to send him some of that Obama money.
What about trees? They are also a part of our society, and they also do useful work (like soaking up all that evil carbon dioxide).
I therefore propose citizenship rights for all trees, aged 18 years and older. I leave it to others smarter than I to decide on the rights of bushes, shrubs, and the various grasses.
Considering my dog would probably vote for anyone who gave her dog biscuits and a tummy rub then I'd say they tend to be liberals.
Smart court
My dogs are smarter than quite a few of my ninth grade students.
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