Anyone considering granting rights to women might as well grant them to animals, Thomas Taylor quips sarcastically in 1792. Exactly a century later, the British emancipationist Henry Salt realizes that Taylor (unintentionally) has a point: why shouldn't animals deserve the same legal protection as any other sentient being with interests? In a completely original way, he elaborates on this idea in this still relevant and remarkably readable essay.
Henry Stephens Salt (1851-1939) was a politically engaged British author. He advocated for reform in education, prisons, economic institutions, and animal husbandry. He was friends with Gandhi and Tolstoy and also greatly influenced later writers (including Peter Singer).
Translation and introduction: Jabik Veenbaas.
'The first title in the new "Animal Rights Library" was written in 1892 and is an interesting choice for several reasons. It is an erudite essay, engagingly written. (...) It is very refreshing to absorb the first explicit and well-considered thoughts in this area. Salt challenges comparison and clarification and reflection on what "progress" means - for animal and human.' - E. Evertsen for NDB Biblion
‘A masterpiece; it remains one of the most lucid and persuasive of all books written in defense of animals.’ -Keith Thomas, New York Review of Books
‘Animal Rights and Social Progress remains relevant because it is much more than an incidental plea. The book is almost one hundred and thirty years old, but it is by no means outdated. Anyone who reads it understands that it adds something essential to the thinking about the moral relationship between humans and animals: an excellently argued philosophical foundation.’ - Jabik Veenbaas in the introduction
‘It is not without reason that this book marks the beginning of the animal rights library of Uitgeverij Noordboek. It is the first book that consistently attempts to thoroughly examine the idea of animal rights. Salt shows that animals do not receive their due if they only receive ‘necessary care’. Their interests must be weighed fairly, according to the principle of equality, in a democracy. As long as our democracy refuses to do this, it is flawed.’ - Erno Eskens, animal philosopher and publisher at Noordboek
