Where is the debate happening today?
If rights require self-awareness, rationality, or moral autonomy, then human infants, the severely cognitively disabled, and dementia patients lack those traits. Yet we grant them the right to life . If we deny that right to a pig (who has higher cognition than a human infant), we are guilty of (Richard Ryder, Peter Singer).
The animal welfare and rights movement has grown to encompass a diverse range of organizations, strategies, and tactics:
Ninety-nine percent of US meat comes from factory farms. Here, welfare is almost non-existent; animals exist in "production cycles" of suffering. Rights groups say abolish it; welfare groups say we need mandatory federal standards (e.g., Prop 12 in California, which requires space for breeding pigs).
: The doctrine of non-violence in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism teaches that all life is interconnected. Emperor Ashoka