cover image The Animal Rights Crusade: The Growth of a Moral Protest

The Animal Rights Crusade: The Growth of a Moral Protest

James M. Jasper. Free Press, $27.95 (214pp) ISBN 978-0-02-916195-1

In the last two decades hundreds of thousands Americans have championed animal rights as part of a new, powerful and controversial social movement. In this lively, objective history, Jasper and Nelkin, sociology professors at New York University, define three types of animal rights organizations. ``Welfarist'' groups, e.g., the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, accept most current uses of animals in scientific experiments while seeking to minimize their suffering. Such ``pragmatist'' organizations as Friends of Animals condone the use of animals when the benefits are likely to outweigh the animals' suffering. Most militant are such ``fundamentalist'' groups as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that encourage tactics of intimidation and violence. The authors point out that the pragmatists have achieved many of their goals through negotiation and legislation and that the movement has accelerated development of alternatives to live-animal testing. (Dec.)