Animal welfare asks us to be less cruel today. Animal rights asks us to imagine a world without exploitation tomorrow. We may not reach the rights horizon within our lifetimes. But by implementing rigorous welfare standards, we build the roads we will travel to get there.
Conversely, welfare improvements often pave the ideological road for rights. Once a society accepts that a pig has a freedom to express normal behavior (rooting in dirt), it becomes harder to justify confining that pig in a gestation crate. Each welfare concession acknowledges a right implicitly. Animal welfare asks us to be less cruel today
Historically, animals are chattel —property, like a toaster or a lawnmower. Animal welfare laws are exceptions to this rule; they say you cannot destroy your property in certain ways (cruelly). But you still own it. But by implementing rigorous welfare standards, we build