Animal rights activists aim to give animals basic rights and, as they say, release them from all “exploitation conditions”. That is why the movement or at least a part of it is called “animal liberation movement”.
Just as people have struggled in their civilization history for their freedoms and rights, animal rights activists want to do this for animals. They compare the status of the animals – meaning domestic animals and farm animals, but also zoo animals – with slaves and would like to start with the new slavery liberation among the great apes. The special status, which humans have, is rejected by him as “anthropocentrism”. Their first goals on the path to full equality of man and animals are: the transfer of human rights to primates, the complete renunciation of the consumption of meat and other animal products such as milk and eggs, the ban on all animal experiments and a ban on the killing of animals for fur or leather, as well as the abolition of hunting and animal husbandry in aquariums, zoos and circuses.
There are different currents within the animal rights movement, which is why explanations in this lexicon may not always apply equally to all representatives of the animal rights scene.
