A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy

by Smith, Wesley J.; Koontz, Dean R.

• ISBN13: 9781594036149
• ISBN10: 1594036144
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-17
• Publisher: Encounter Books

Summary

Over the past thirty years, as Wesley J. Smith details in his latest book, the concept of animal rights has been seeping into the very bone marrow of Western culture. One reason for this development is that the term "animal rights" is so often used very loosely, to mean simply being nicer to animals. But although animal rights groups do sometimes focus their activism on promoting animal welfare, the larger movement they represent is actually advancing a radical belief system. For some activists, the animal rights ideology amounts to a quasi religion, one whose central doctrine declares a moral equivalency between the value of animal lives and the value of human lives. Animal rights ideologues embrace their beliefs with a fervor that is remarkably intense and sustained, to the point that many dedicate their entire lives to "speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves." Some believe their cause to be so righteous that it entitles them to cross the line from legitimate advocacy to vandalism and harassment, or even terrorism against medical researchers, the fur and food industries, and others they accuse of abusing animals. All people who love animals and recognize their intrinsic worth can agree with Wesley J. Smith that human beings owe animals respect, kindness, and humane care. But Smith argues eloquently that our obligation to humanity matters more, and that granting "rights" to animals would inevitably diminish human dignity. In making this case with reason and passion, A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boystrikes a major blow against a radically antihuman dogma.

Author Biography

Wesley J. Smith, a Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Bioethics at the Discovery Institute, is the author of the prizewinning Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, as well as Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World and Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and the New Duty to Die. He lives in Castro Valley, California, with his wife, the syndicated columnist Debra J. Saunders.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Preface to the Paperback Edition	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
"For the Animals"
Animal Advocacy Isn't What It Used to Be	p. 11
"All Animals Are Equal"	p. 23
Animals Are People Too	p. 35
Let It Begin with Apes	p. 47
Here Comes the Judge	p. 61
The Silver Spring Monkey Case	p. 71
The Death of a Thousand Cuts	p. 81
Proselytizing Children	p. 101
By Any Means Necessary
Advocating Terror	p. 115
Tertiary Targeting	p. 127
Praising with Faint Condemnation	p. 137
Murder They Wrote?	p. 149
For the People
Animal Rights vs. Medical Research	p. 167
Our System of Animal Research	p. 183
Ensuring the Proper Care of Lab Animals	p. 195
Meat Is Not Murder	p. 203
Fur, Hunting, and Zoos	p. 219
The Importance of Being Human	p. 231
Supplement	p. 251
Acknowledgments	p. 265
Notes	p. 269
Index	p. 301
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