Legality is no guarantee of morality. Who does and doesn’t have legal rights is determined merely by the opinion of current legislators. The law changes as public opinion or political motivations change, but ethics are not so arbitrary. Look at some of the other things that have at one time been legal in the U.S.—child labor, human slavery, the oppression of women.
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“Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?”
— Ingrid Newkirk, PETA Founder and co-author of Animalkind
