Book Recommendations: Philosophy of Animal Rights

Animal Liberation by Peter Singer

This is the "bible" of the animal welfare movement. First written in 1975, Animal Liberation was the book that launched the modern animal rights movement. According to The New York Times Book Review, "Singer's documentation is unrhetorical and unemotional, his arguments tight and formidable, for he bases his case on neither personal nor religious nor highly abstract philosophical principles, but on moral positions most of us already accept".

	Of Mice, Models and Men by Andrew N. Rowan
	This is the first study to combine regard for the welfare of laboratory animals with a belief in the continuing need for research involving animals. It presents, in a manner accessible to both sides, all the relevant historical, social and scientific information required to form an opinion on the subject.

	The Great Ape Project edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer
	This is a compelling and revolutionary work that calls for the immediate extension of our human rights to the other great apes. The book is a collection of thirty one essays by the world's most distinguished observers of free-living apes.

	Pawprints on the Soul by S. Francis
	This book is an excellent resource for campaigners.  It includes a series of quotes from well-known people, such as Abraham Lincoln, Carl Jung, Gandhi and Roosevelt, and even an Air Chief Marshall.  There is also an analysis of some of the most pressing problems in animal welfare.

	Babies and Beasts by Daniel A. Dombrowski
	Both its defenders and detractors have described the argument from marginal cases as the most important to date in defense of animal rights. The argument concludes that no morally relevant characteristic distinguishes human beings - including infants, the severely retarded, the comatose, and other "marginal cases" from any other animals.

	Animal Rights and Human Obligations edited by Tom Regan and Peter Singer
	Edited by the two leading philosophers in the animal protection movement, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of historical and contemporary writings that address both the nature of non-human animals and our duties towards them.