5. Animal Protection, Animal Rights
& Animal Welfare

In discussions of humans’ use of animals and also our moral duty to protect them, you may come across different phrases, including “animal welfare”, “animal rights” and “animal protection”. It is useful to clarify what each of these terms mean.

“Animal protection” is the broadest of these terms. The Humane League (THL) refers to animal protection as “the prevention, reduction, or elimination of harms done to animals by humans.” According to THL, animal protection can be categorised into (i) wild animal protection, (ii) animal welfare and (iii) animal rights.

It is important to understand the difference between “animal rights” and “animal welfare”. Broadly speaking, those who campaign for animal rights believe that all animals have a right to live free from any interference from humans. From this perspective, humans should not use animals at all, for any purpose. Those who campaign for animal welfare acknowledge that most humans do use animals in some way (regardless of whether they personally think that the use of animals is morally right or not). From this perspective, they strongly believe that the animals should be treated well and experience good welfare in their lifetimes.

World Animal Protection (WAP) states that:

“Animal welfare and animal rights differ based on one key aspect: Animal welfare is a fact-driven approach to our relationship with animals, whereas animal rights takes a philosophical approach.”

“Animal welfare refers to an animal’s quality of life and how well an animal is coping with their environment. This approach is rooted in science and makes judgements based on observable facts about animal suffering. Animal welfare organisations fight for animals to have positive physical and social experiences in their lives.”

“Animal rights is a philosophy which posits that no animals should be used by humans for any reason. This includes, for food, labour, and entertainment, among other ways animals are used in modern society. Animal rights activists, then, have a specific goal in mind: Ending the use of animals by humans.”

Read more about the difference between the two movements here. You can also learn more about the animal rights and welfare movement from this Wikipedia article on the animal rights movement.