Speciesism Quotes
A curated collection of the best quotes about Speciesism.
Top Quotes
“Vegetarianism”
“Animal rights”
“Insect suffering”
“Wild animal suffering”
“Intensive animal farming”
“Wikipedia: Speciesism”
“Animal Ethics (2014) "Speciesism"”
“Speciesism: "A failure, in attitude or practice, to accord any nonhuman being equal consideration and respect".”
“Animal Ethics (2015) "Speciesism FAQ"”
“The animal liberation movement is fighting what is arguably the most entrenched and widespread form of exploitation in human history: speciesism.”
“Effective Altruism Foundation (2017) "The Case against Speciesism"”
“If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit non-humans for the same purpose?”
“Speciesism—the word is not an attractive one, but I can think of no better term—is a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one's own species and against those of members of other species.”
“Since we all inhabit the earth, we are all considered earthlings. There is no sexism, racism, or speciesism in the term 'earthling'. It encompasses each and every one of us: warm or cold-blooded, mammal, vertebrate or invertebrate, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish and human alike.”
“Two slightly different, but not often clearly distinguished usages of "speciesism" should be noted. But more strictly, it is when the discrimination or exploitation [is defended by means of an appeal to] species that it is speciesist. This usage should perhaps be called strict speciesism.”
“So what is the alternative to traditional anthropocentric ethics? Antispeciesism is not the claim that "All Animals Are Equal", or that all species are of equal value, or that a human or a pig is equivalent to a mosquito. Rather the antispeciesist claims that, other things being equal, equally strong interests should count equally.”
“We should give equal priority to equal interests in general, and to equal suffering in particular. Indeed, it is the rejection of the principle of equal consideration of equal interests that requires justification, since such a rejection faces the burden of identifying a morally relevant criterion that can justify this discrimination.”
“It is clear that we have direct ethical obligations to sentient animals; but it is not at all clear that we have direct ethical obligations to entities such as species, or to biological diversity. The burden of proof should thus be on conservationists to show how killing the first to preserve the second can possibly be acceptable from an ethical point of view.”
“It is the human earthling who tends to dominate the earth, oftentimes treating other fellow earthlings and living beings as mere objects. This is what is meant by 'speciesism'. By analogy with racism and sexism, speciesism is a prejudice or attitude or bias in favor of the interests of the members of one's own species and against those of members of other species.”