Please find below the list of books on Animal Advocacy that Vegan Ireland recommends.

The section is regularly updated, so each time we add new reviews, they will be labelled as "New".

• On their own terms, by Lee Hall. New!
• Speciesism, by Joan Dunayer.
• Animal Equality, by Joan Dunayer.
• Making a Killing, by Bob Torres.
• Rain Without Thunder, by Gary Francione.
• Animals As Persons, by Gary Francione.
• Animals, Property, and the Law, by Gary Francione.
• Introduction to Animal Rights, by Gary Francione.
• Seal Wars, by Paul Watson.
• Empty cages, by Tom Regan.
• The Case for Animal Rights, by Tom Regan.
• Defending Animal Rights, by Tom Regan.
• Animal Sacrifices, by Tom Regan.

Speciesism:”A failure, in attitude or practice, to accord any nonhuman being equal consideration and respect”.

Author: Joan Dunayer.

Speciesism provides all the arguments on why nonhuman animals deserve life, freedom and other basic rights and how these rights can be recognised.

When will it happen? According to Joan Dunayer, when the public opinion changes and people realise that speciesism is to animal rights what racism and sexism are to human rights.

According to Joan Dunayer, there are 3 categories:

• The old-speciesist who limits rights to humans,
• the new-speciesist who allows rights to nonhumans who are most human-like,
• the nonspeciesist who believes every sentient being should have rights, the right to life and freedom.

The political economy of Animal Rights.

Author: Bob Torres.

From the back cover (we couldn't write it better):

"Suggest to the average leftist that animals should be part of broader liberation struggles and—once they stop laughing—you'll find yourself casually dismissed.

With a focus on labor, property, and the life of commodities, Making a Killing contains key insights into the broad nature of domination, power, and hierarchy.

It explores the intersections between human and animal oppressions and their relation to the exploitative dynamics of capitalism.

Combining nuts and bolts Marxist political economy, a pluralistic anarchist critique, as well as a searing assessment of the animal rights movement, Bob Torres challenges conventional Leftist thinking and convincingly advocates for the abolition of animals in industry—and on the dinner plate."

Animal Equality is the first book on language and nonhuman oppression ever written in the Animal Rights movement.

Author: Joan Dunayer.

Animal Equality demonstrates that the everyday language that we use contains biased words which promote and perpetuate injustice towards nonhuman animals. For example:

“Mankind” is used for humankind, and "lower" animals for all nonhumans. “Animal” refers to a human who behaves roughly, “Pig” to point out a human who is dirty, “Wildlife management” is a euphemism for "hunting", etc.

Through our language, we continue to: Cover-up and desensitize ourselves to our use and treatment of nonhumans, Consider them as members of inferior species, as unreasoning or insensitive, which we believe gives us the right to use them as “tools”, “things”.

Joan Dunayer argues that every animal – nonhuman or human – deserves equal consideration and protection and that our view of nonhuman animals starts with language.
Note: Animal Equality also contains a very useful thesaurus of speciesist terms and nonspeciesist substitutes.

The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement.

Author: Gary Francione.

Are “animal welfare” supporters indistinguishable from the animal exploiters they oppose?

Do reformist measures reaffirm the underlying principles that make animal exploitation possible in the first place?

In this provocative book, Gary L. Francione argues that the modern animal rights movement has become indistinguishable from a century-old concern with the welfare of animals that in no way prevents them from being exploited.
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Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation.

Author: Gary Francione.

Francione introduces the volume with an essay that explains our historical and contemporary attitudes about animals by distinguishing the issue of animal use from that of animal treatment.

He then presents a theory of animal rights, which focuses on the need to accord all sentient nonhumans the right not to be treated as our property.
Our recognition of such a right would require that we stop bringing domesticated animals into existence for human use.

He takes a hard look at our “moral schizophrenia” toward animals and our ability to regard some creatures as beloved companions and others as food and clothing.

Subsequent essays explore recent changes in animal welfare and the sad fact that these advances have not only failed to bring us closer to the abolition of animal exploitation, but have made the public feel more comfortable about supposedly more “humane” animal treatment.
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The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement.

Author: Gary Francione.

“Pain is pain, irrespective of the race, sex, or species of the victim,” states William Kunstler in his foreword.

This moral concern for the suffering of animals and their legal status is the basis for Gary L. Francione’s profound book, which asks, Why has the law failed to protect animals from exploitation?

Francione argues that the current legal standard of animal welfare does not and cannot establish fights for animals. As long as they are viewed as property, animals will be subject to suffering for the social and economic benefit of human beings.
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Bringing Animal-Rights Philosophy Down to Earth.

Author: Lee Hall.

Sensing the need for fresh ideas in advocacy, and the importance of making animal-rights theory relevant in a time of biotechnology, rapid extinctions and climate change, On Their Own Terms: Bringing Animal-Rights Philosophy Down to Earth challenges us to think of ourselves and other conscious beings in new ways. This book takes the creative and necessary step of calling for a merging of ecological awareness and animal advocacy. It asks us to imagine and appreciate the dignity of free communities of animals thriving in their habitats.

As a society shifts to respect animals on their terms, its judges and lawmakers will stop regarding the environment as props and scenery on the stage of humanity's drama. They will begin to take the interests of all its living inhabitants seriously. This work explains why the shift is within humanity s reach, and how it will come through an animal-advocacy movement that is no longer limited to generating pity for Earth's other beings, or looking for ways to show how cruel we are to them, or taking steps to make their controlled lives less stressful. On Their Own Terms is an invitation to a movement that can ensure the triumph of animals natural freedom and power, and a practical handbook for the advocate who takes up the challenge.