It’s fine for you to believe in animal rights, but you shouldn’t tell other people what to do.

Hey, now you are telling me what to do! Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but freedom of thought does not always imply freedom of action. You are free to believe whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt others. You may believe that animals should be killed, that black people should be enslaved, or that women should be beaten, but you don’t always have the right to put your beliefs into practice. As for telling people what to do, society exists because there are rules governing people’s behavior.

The very nature of reform movements is to “tell others what to do”—don’t use humans as slaves, don’t sexually harass women, etc.—and all movements initially encounter opposition from people who want to go on doing the criticized behavior.