Animal rights, animal liberation, or animal personhood, Michael, Steven. "Animal personhood: A Threat to Research", The Physiologist, Volume 47, No. 6, December 2004. is the movement to protect animals from being used or regarded as property by human beings. It is a radical social movement Guither, Harold D. Animal Rights: History and Scope of a Radical Social Movement. Southern Illinois University Press; reissue edition 1997. ISBN 0809321998 "Ethics," Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved June 17, 2006. insofar as it aims not only to attain more humane treatment for animals, "Environmentalism," Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved June 17, 2006. but also to include species other than human beings within the moral community Taylor, Angus. Animals and Ethics: An Overview of the Philosophical Debate, Broadview Press, May 2003. ISBN 1551115697 by giving their basic interests — for example, the interest in avoiding suffering — the same consideration as those of human beings. "Animal rights," Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved June 16, 2006. The claim is that animals should no longer be regarded legally or morally as property, or treated as resources for human purposes, but should instead be regarded as persons. "'Personhood' Redefined: Animal Rights Strategy Gets at the Essence of Being Human", Association of American Medical Colleges, retrieved July 12, 2006. The movement seeks an end to all forms of what it sees as animal exploitation, including the use of animals in experiments, as sources of entertainment, as clothing, and as food.

Animal rights or animal legal courses are now taught in 39 out of 180 United States law schools; and 47 of them have student animal legal defense groups. State, regional, and local bar associations are forming animal law committees to advocate for new animal rights and protections, and the idea of extending personhood to animals has the support of some senior legal scholars, including Alan Dershowitz and Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School. Two countries have passed legislation awarding recognition to the rights of animals, as opposed to only protection from cruelty. In 1992, Switzerland recognized animals as beings, not things, "Germany guarantees animal rights", CNN, June 21, 2002 and in 2002, a clause acknowledging the rights of animals was added to the German constitution, making Germany the first European Union country to recognize animal rights. The Seattle-based Great Ape Project, founded by philosophers Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer, is campaigning for the United Nations to adopt a Declaration on Great Apes, which would see gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos included in a "community of equals" with human beings, extending to them the protection of three basic interests: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture. "Declaration on Great Apes", Great Ape Project, retrieved April 20, 2006. This is seen by an increasing number of animal rights lawyers as a first step toward granting rights to other animals. Steven Wise, who teaches animal rights law at Harvard Law School, has said of this approach: "Progress occurs funeral by funeral." Wise, Steven M. Address at the 5th Annual Conference on Animals and the Law, Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, September 25, 1999. Wise was quoting economist Robert Samuelson.

Critics of the concept of animal rights argue that, because animals do not have the capacity to enter into a social contract or make moral choices, . Regan, Tom. "The Case for Animal Rights", retrieved April 20, 2006. and cannot respect the rights of others or understand the concept of rights, they cannot be regarded as possessors of moral rights. The philosopher Roger Scruton argues that only human beings have duties and that "^*he corollary is inescapable: we alone have rights." Scruton, Roger. "Animal rights", City Journal, volume 10, issue 3, pages 100-107, summer 2000. ISSN 10608540. Critics holding this position argue that there is nothing inherently wrong with using animals for food, as entertainment, and in research, though human beings may nevertheless have an obligation to ensure they do not suffer unnecessarily. Frey, R.G. Interests and Rights: The Case against Animals. Clarendon Press, 1980 ISBN 0198244215 Scruton, Roger. Animal Rights and Wrongs, Metro, 2000.ISBN 1900512815. This position is generally called the animal welfare position, and it is held by some of the oldest of the animal-protection agencies: for example, by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the UK.

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