What Is The Difference Between Animal Rights and Animal Welfare?

Question

And WHY is it important to make a DISTINCTION between the two?

EDIT: These are GREAT answers!!!
except for Katya...honey, you need to grow up and you need to research just a little more..

Showtune....you made a VERY important point!!!!!

Answer 1

Animal RIGHTS basically takes all control away from the owner and is quite ridiculous.
Animal WELFARE leaves control in the hands of the owner but provides legislation making in mandatory that the needs of the dog is met, such as shelter, food, water, etc.
It's important to distinguish between the two because animal rights nutbags would like to see all animal ownership abolished.

Answer 2

You are for animal rights, just not as extreme as the flakes at PETA. The scientist who experiments on animals is interested in animal welfare. So are the ranchers and the best of the trappers. They want no needless suffering of the animals. You can call it enlightened self-interest. Game and fish are managed in order to protect the populations of the species involved. An animal rights activist would have hunting and fishing banned, resulting in overpopulations of (for example) deer, which would then starve to death or be decimated by diseases. Google "Kaibab Plateau" for a study of what can happen when a deer population is unmanaged after predators have been killed off.

Answer 3

The so called animal rights groups believe ALL companion animals should be neutered or spayed. If you read the articles written by the movement's founders, they consider the "freeing" of the dependent companion animal to be the best possible end result They don't believe that purebred dogs, cats, rabbits, birds etc should be encouraged or allowed to breed. They believe no animals should ever be deliberately killed. (Except at their no-kill shelter which we won't talk about)

I consider myself to be an animal welfare advocate and have been active for more than 25 years. Most folks working in purebred rescue for example, consider themselves to be animal welfare. I have worked to more pet friendly laws, and better laws for pet health and safety, for more low cost spay-neuter clinics, and better control and tighter regulation of large breeding facilities (if you can't close them down at least try to clean them up - and with a Republican legislature closing down an entire industry wasn't going to happen) just to name a few. The animal rights folks were rarely in agreement with our results.

I see a giant divide, and I am proud to be on the side I am on. I believe that if people want the characteristics of a purebred animal they should be able to acquire it, hopefully from a reputable hobby breeder.

Answer 4

Animal Rights is an extremist view that would lead to the deaths of all domesticated animals and pets in particular. It would possibly lead to the extinction of a great many species of wild life and put the human population in danger too.They claim that animals have a 'right' to live in freedom and not be killed for food, or used in any way by man. They see pet ownership as slavery!
It shouldn't take even an idiot to realise what that would lead to. The world's populations of cats and dogs either sterilised leading very quickly to the mass extinction of both! Or released into the wild where to live they would have to hunt to survive! In the case of Dog's they'd form large packs and what could they kill but the other domesticated animals and the wild life of the area! Does anyone think that people are going to allow their children to live surrounded by 'Wild' animals without killing them to protect 'human' life? The cows, sheep, pigs etc need land to live on but without eating animals that land would be needed for crops to feed the world's people! What happens to the herd of sheep no longer protected or fed by man? It is killed by other animals or starves to death!

Animal Welfare actually does also fight for animals rights, but it's for the right to be treated without cruelty, to be kept in the best conditions possible given the best care suited to the individual animals needs and for areas of this world to be left 'wild' so that most creatures can live out their lives as 'nature' intends. It's about educating people about the animals 'real' needs from the animal's perspective and not from the 'human' idea of what they may or may not feel!

Answer 5

Ditto to everyone else who answered the question exactly the way I would, except that's a lot of typing.... I loved Penn & Teller video. BULL $hit. Especially when the PETA people likened Chicken Farms to the Holocaust... RIIIIGHT. Animal welfare is taking care of domestic animals the way we should for something that is completely dependent on us. Animal Rights is BS, animals cannot think for themselves and have no responsibilities (except what we put on them) therefore they have no rights. Rights (to me anyway) come AFTER responsibility. Animals arent responsible for themselves, we are.

Answer 6

If a creature cannot make decisions and be held responsible for its own actions then it cannot have rights. Animals cannot have rights, just like children cannot actually have rights until they begin to reason.

Animal welfare is simply us doing our duty for animals. We have the duty to protect them and ensure they are treated properly in all respects.

In the end the person is responsible for caring for the animal and any of the animal's actions. When an animal is killed by the state it is not a punishment, it is done for the safety of the community.

Answer 7

Animal welfare supporters are well meaning people that care about their pets and animals in general. They work to create laws that provide protection from cruel and inhumane treatment.
Animal rights supporters consist mostly of overzealous people and/or activists that fight to provide rights and freedom to all animals. While that sounds very similar, it is very different. Animal rights activists believe that no animal shall be enslaved and/or killed for any purpose what so ever. Not for medical research, not for fur, hide or food. To keep animals as pets equals slavery to all animal rights activists. Organizations like PETA and HSUS want to take away your beloved pets.

“In the end, I think it would be lovely if we stopped this whole notion of
pets altogether”.
~ Ingrid Newkirk, President of PETA ~

One generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic
animals.
~ Wayne Pacelle, President HSUS ~

Answer 8

Animal welfare is how animals are being treated and cared for. For example, advocates for animal welfare might push for legislation which makes the penalties for animal cruelty greater. On the other hand, animal rights is exactly that... the rights of animals, and I believe there shouldn't be ANY. Animal rights activists are PETA supporters... crazy people who believe that animals are equal to humans, which is absurd.

Answer 9

THE DISTINCTION between them is

Animals right is not considered as Animal welfare.

Animals Welfare is not considered as Animal right.

Answer 10

Well.... being these are human terms.... we should think along those lines.... therefore, what's good for the species can sometimes be bad for the individual...( say for instance i bite the wrong neighbors dog?) So until these cats get their own government.... so they can lobby like the rest of us humans.... they'll just have to watch the leg their humping! Kinda like our government? But hey...... maybe their the lucky ones....