Gary L. Francione quotes

Gary L. Francione is an American legal scholar and philosopher, best known for his work in animal rights theory. His abolitionist approach challenges the moral and legal status of animals in society. He advocates for the recognition of animals as persons with basic rights and has influenced the modern animal rights movement. Here are 21 of his quotes:

Just as we reject racism, sexism, ageism, and heterosexism, we reject speciesism. The species of a sentient being is no more reason to deny the protection of this basic right than race, sex, age, or sexual orientation is a reason to deny membership in the human moral community to other humans.

Gary L. Francione

There is no moral distinction between fur and other materials made from animals, such as leather, which also is the result of the suffering and death of sentient beings.

Gary L. Francione

The most important form of incremental change is the decision by the individual to become vegan. Veganism, or the eschewing of all animal products, is more than a matter of diet or lifestyle; it is a political and moral statement in which the individual accepts the principle of abolition in her own life. Veganism is the one truly abolitionist goal that we can all achieve - and we can achieve it immediately, starting with our next meal.

Gary L. Francione

There is no 'need' for us to eat meat, dairy or eggs. Indeed, these foods are increasingly linked to various human diseases and animal agriculture is an environmental disaster for the planet.

Gary L. Francione

Michael Vick may enjoy watching dogs fight. Someone else may find that repulsive but see nothing wrong with eating an animal who has had a life as full of pain and suffering as the lives of the fighting dogs. It's strange that we regard the latter as morally different from, and superior to, the former.

Gary L. Francione

Veganism is not about giving anything up or losing anything; it is about gaining the peace within yourself that comes from embracing nonviolence and refusing to participate in the exploitation of the vulnerable.

Gary L. Francione

All sentient beings should have at least one right-the right not to be treated as property.

Gary L. Francione

The proposition that humans have mental characteristics wholly absent in non-humans is inconsistent with the theory of evolution.

Gary L. Francione

Veganism is not a "sacrifice." It is a joy.

Gary L. Francione

People need to be educated so that they can make intelligent moral choices.

Gary L. Francione

Any serious social, political, and economic change must include veganism.

Gary L. Francione

There is no meaningful distinction between eating flesh and eating dairy or other animal products. Animals exploited in the dairy industry live longer than those used for meat, but they are treated worse during their lives, and they end up in the same slaughterhouse after which we consume their flesh anyway. There is probably more suffering in a glass of milk or an ice cream cone than there is in a steak.

Gary L. Francione

Ethical veganism represents a commitment to nonviolence.

Gary L. Francione

We do not think clearly about our moral obligations to animals.

Gary L. Francione

In order to be a teacher you've got to be a student first.

Gary L. Francione

If you are not vegan, please consider going vegan. It's a matter of nonviolence. Being vegan is your statement that you reject violence to other sentient beings, to yourself, and to the environment, on which all sentient beings depend.

Gary L. Francione

There is increasing social concern about our use of nonhumans for experiments, food, clothing and entertainment. This concern about animals reflects both our own moral development as a civilization and our recognition that the differences between humans and animals are, for the most part, differences of degree and not of kind.

Gary L. Francione

We eat animals because they taste good. And if that's O.K., what's wrong with wearing fur? We need as a society to think seriously about our institutionalized animal use.

Gary L. Francione