“Pets Shouldn’t Exist.”

So says says a university-employed tax-funded animal rights radical at Rutgers. “We ought to get rid of domestication altogether.”

According to this guy, pet owners are “oppressors.”

This is all pure confusion of course. Note first of all that, in the interview linked above, he is talking to to a human interviewer for an article to be read by humans. He is not talking to other animals about them ‘oppressing’ each other (like cats tormenting the birds in the yard).

Animals can’t be “not oppressed.” They can’t be “liberated” simply because they cannot be “free” the way humans can be.

That’s why it’s ok when we say, “I own this dog / this cat is my property,” but it’s not ok to own slaves and have humans as property. Humans have rights and animals don’t.

Obviously humans should take into account animal suffering for our actions. The burden of moral decisionmaking is entirely on humans in any case. But that is not the same as saying, “Animals have rights.”

There is certainly no justification for using the state’s guns and badges to restrict people from owning pets and eating animals. But this is what radicals like Gary Francione desire. The progressives have always hated the human use of animals (especially red meat).