In today’s animal protection movement, there exists a lot of confusion about what “animal rights” should or does signify. While we don’t have all the answers, we are excited to share what “animal rights” means to us at Rise!
We believe that humans “should never use animals for their own pleasures or interests, regardless of their benefits”.
It is on this basis that we oppose all nonhuman animal research, experimentation, and testing for human “benefit” or curiosity.
We want to see the abolition of institutionalized cruelty.
Because we want to end all nonhuman animal experimentation – and because history teaches that institutional reform is unlikely to lead to abolition – we don’t come out in favor of most industry “reforms”. (We, of course(!), want nonhuman animals to suffer less in laboratories, but, ultimately, we don’t want them in laboratories at all – we are fighting for empty cages, not bigger ones!)
We view the animal rights movement as a “movement for social change based on issues of justice and our moral duties to others”.
Animal rights is a social justice cause, and we find compelling the theory of intersectionality – which is to say that we vehemently oppose speciesism and all other forms of discrimination and oppression.
We are proud to support animal rights, but you certainly don’t have to identify as an animal rights advocate to support us.
We respect your efforts to help animals no matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum, just as we hope you will respect our perspective even if you disagree. We can all learn from and be inspired by one another, and we are all needed to make the world a more just place for nonhuman animals.