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H. J. McCloskey on Animal Rights

Animal Ethics

As regards animals, the position is clear. If an animal has the relevant moral capacities, actually or potentially, then it can be a possessor of rights. It may for this reason be morally appropriate for us meanwhile to act towards the former animals as if they are possessors of rights.

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Steven M. Wise on Legal Rights for Animals

Animal Ethics

The legal rights of nonhuman animals might first be achieved in any of three ways. For example, the Treaty of Amsterdam that came into force on May 1, 1999, formally acknowledged that nonhuman animals are “sentient beings” and not merely goods or agricultural products. Wise , “ The Evolution of Animal Law Since 1950 ,” chap.

Rights 40
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J. J. C. Smart on the Moral Status of Animals

Animal Ethics

It is a merit of utilitarianism, with its stress on happiness and unhappiness, that lower animals must be considered along with human beings, so that they are not debarred from full or direct consideration because they are not "rational." Perhaps Smart was still thinking (in 1980) of Kant versus Bentham, rationality versus sentience.

Morals 40