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Beauty Without Cruelty, established in 1975, celebrates 45 years of work defending animal rights in South Africa and acknowledges that much work remains in the fields of vivisection, animals as entertainment, factory farming, cosmetic testing and the exploitation of our wildlife.
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What is Animal Rights?
Animal rights is the philosophy of allowing non-human animals to have the most basic rights that all sentient beings desire: the freedom to live a natural life free from human exploitation, pain and suffering, and premature death. This is what the animal rights movement is about; it is not about working for equality between human and non-human animals.
How is Animal Rights Different from Animal Welfare?
Proponents of animal welfare seek to alleviate the suffering of animals while they are being exploited — without attempting to question the fundamental basis of whether it is acceptable to exploit animals in the first place. Animal rights beliefs reject the idea that animals need to have a value to the human species in order to be deserving of rights.
In other words, Welfarists work with what is, while Rightists work toward what should be!
In order to help ourselves, we must learn to protect both other humans and non-human animals. How does humanity intend to solve differences among its own species when it cannot learn to make peace with the other animals on earth? Humans need to start thinking and living in terms of co-existence, as opposed to dominance. You certainly do not have to love your neighbours, but you should be able to get along with them. Peace begins with the individuals who make a conscious effort to go through life making the least negative impact possible.
It is a mistake to see issues of human and animal exploitation as mutually exclusive. On the contrary, all exploitation is inextricably intertwined. All exploitation is a manifestation of violence. All discrimination is a manifestation of violence. As long as we tolerate violence of any sort, there will be violence of every sort.
Click here to download the Human & Animal Rights presentation (Powerpoint – 6.5MB)
HISTORY
2005
Beryl Scott received this Outstanding Service in Animal Welfare Award 2005. Beryl Scott was chairperson for over 20 years. She remains the product researcher for BWC.
