Rain Without Thunder The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement - Gary L. Francione (1996).pdf

From Publishers Weekly
In legal theory, Francione notes, "Animal welfare, unlike animal rights, rests on the notion that animals are property and that virtually every animal interest can be sacrificed in order to obtain `benefits' for people." Animal welfare is rather like "wise use"--i.e., eat animals, experiment on them, but try to avoid "unnecessary" suffering. As Francione says, "I do not think that we can meaningfully speak of legal rights for animals as long as animals are regarded as property." Francione follows his 1995 book, Animals, Property and the Law, with a scholarly, sometimes dense but generally compelling argument that the modern animal-rights movement is substantially one for animal welfare that ignores the question of whether animals have inherent rights. Even the more radical animal advocates dismiss the idea of rights as a utopian concept without immediate practical application. Discussing the dichotomy and the blurring of the issues, the book sometimes becomes redundant, both in its reiteration of the stands of prominent animal rights activists and in its analyses of definitions, legal and otherwise. The points of contention are multifaceted and occasionally confusing, but that complexity is clarified somewhat by the addition of imaginative anecdotes. As a Rutgers law professor and codirector of the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Center, Francione is clearly trying to affect public policy, but a more accessible book would have given him a better chance to affect public opinion as well.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review

"Francione cogently argues that the Animal Liberation Movement, though using rights rhetoric and espousing the eradication of animal exploitation, actually represents a new, self-defeating welfarism because its tactics embody the animal welfare position. Consequently, the plight of animals is worse than it was twenty years ago."
—Choice


"[A] must-read for those teaching animal ethics and for any laboratory animal specialist wanting to obtain a deeper understanding of the Animal Rights Movement."
—Lab Animal


"Gary Francione's work is both refined and exhaustively documented. [He] makes a strong case for viewing the animal rights position as both realistic and practical.... This is, in itself, a major contribution to the literature and one that will change the course of debate over animals."
—Michael Fox, Professor of Philosophy, Australian National University, Faculty of Arts

Biography
Gary L. Francione is Distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Scholar of Law and Philosophy at Rutgers University School of Law-Newark.

He received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Rochester, where he was awarded the Phi Beta Kappa O'Hearn Scholarship that allowed him to pursue graduate study in philosophy in Great Britain. He received his M.A. in philosophy and his J.D. from the University of Virginia. He was Articles Editor of the Virginia Law Review.

After graduation, he clerked for Judge Albert Tate, Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the United States Supreme Court. He was an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1984, where he was tenured in 1987. He joined the Rutgers faculty in 1989.

Professor Francione has been teaching animal rights and the law for more than 20 years, and he was the first academic to teach animal rights theory in an American law school. He has lectured on the topic throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, including serving as a member of the Guest Faculty of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has been a guest on numerous radio and television shows. He is well known throughout the animal protection movement for his criticism of animal welfare law and the property status of nonhuman animals, and for his abolitionist theory of animal rights.

He is the author of numerous books and articles on animal rights theory and animals and the law, including Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? (2000), Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement (1996), Animals, Property, and the Law (1995), Vivisection and Dissection in the Classroom: A Guide to Conscientious Objection (with Anna E. Charlton) (1992), and Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation (2007).

Professor Francione and his partner and colleague, Adjunct Professor Anna E. Charlton, started and operated the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Clinic/Center from 1990-2000, making Rutgers the first university in the United States to have animal rights law as part of the regular academic curriculum, and to award students academic credit not only for classroom work, but also for work on actual cases involving animal issues. Francione and Charlton represented without charge individual animal advocates, grassroots animal groups, and national and international animal organizations. Francione and Charlton currently teach a course on human rights and animal rights, and a seminar on animal rights theory and the law. Professor Francione also teaches courses on criminal law, criminal procedure, jurisprudence, and legal philosophy.