Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves: Interview with Dr. Jeff Sebo (vegan), Part 2 of 2

“When more individuals start to demand plant-based diets, then governments and corporations have a reason to support and produce plant-based foods.” “And then the more governments and corporations make those changes, and for example, make plant-based foods more accessible and affordable and desirable, the easier it will be for individuals to make their individual changes in a way that makes their behaviors less harmful. So, I think that we should do both: act as individuals, and demand that our governments and corporations act as institutions.” In his book “Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves: Why Animals Matter for Pandemics,” Dr. Jeff Sebo elaborates on the challenges involved in improving the lives of animal-people due to legal, political, and economic systems that regard them as objects to exploit rather than subjects deserving respect. Furthermore, he emphasizes the importance of granting animal-people a legal status called “animal citizenship.”

“One of the main obstacles in the way of treating animals better, harming them less, and helping them more, is that right now, in most governments, in most countries and states and cities, animals have a legal status of objects, property, commodities.” “So, as with humans, when we talk about the idea of non-human personhood or non-human citizenship, we are not suggesting that we should treat animals exactly like we treat human persons and citizens and give them all the same rights. We are instead suggesting that we should extend whichever basic rights still makes sense for the kinds of beings they are and the kinds of interests they have. And that probably means at least a right not to be harmed and killed unnecessarily, a right to get to live where you were born, and a right to be considered when we make decisions that affect you.” “I would wish that we become more thoughtful and more altruistic in our behavior, that we recognize that what we are doing as individuals and what we are doing as collectives is impacting not only us, but everybody across nations, across generations, and across species.”