Francione is known for his work on
animal rights theory, and in 1989, was the first academic to teach it in an American law school. His work has focused on three issues: the property status of animals, the differences between animal rights and
animal welfare, and a theory of animal rights based on
sentience alone, rather than on any other cognitive characteristics. He is a pioneer of the
abolitionist theory of animal rights, arguing that animal welfare regulation is theoretically and practically unsound, serving only to prolong the status of animals as property by making the public feel comfortable about using them. He argues that non-human animals require only one right, the right not to be regarded as property, and that
veganism—the rejection of the use of animals as mere resources—is the moral baseline of the animal rights movement. He rejects all forms of violence, arguing that the animal rights movement is the logical progression of the peace movement, seeking to take it one step further by ending conflict between human and non-human animals, and by treating animals as ends in themselves. • For the right not to be regarded as property, see Francione, Gary.
Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement, 1996. Francione is the author or co-author of several books about animal rights, including
Animals, Property, and the Law (1995),
Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement (1996),
Animals as Persons (2008), and
The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation? (2010, with
Robert Garner). "He has also written in the areas of copyright, patent law, and law and science".
Property status of animals In
Animals, Property, and the Law (1995), Francione argues that because animals are the property of humans, laws that supposedly require their "humane" treatment and prohibit the infliction of "unnecessary" harm do not provide a significant level of protection for animal interests. For the most part, these laws and regulations require only that animals receive that level of protection that is required for their use as human property. Animals only have value as commodities and their interests do not matter in any moral sense. As a result, despite having laws that supposedly protect them, Francione contends that we treat animals in ways that would be regarded as
torture if humans were the ones being used. He argues that we could choose to provide some greater measure of protection to animals even if they were to remain our property, but only up until the point where it becomes too costly for us to continue. Legal, social, and economic forces militate strongly against recognizing animal interests unless there is an economic benefit to humans.
Comparison of animal rights and animal welfare In
Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement (1996), Francione argues that there are significant theoretical and practical differences between animal rights, which he maintains requires the abolition of animal
exploitation, and animal welfare, which seeks to regulate exploitation to make it more humane. Francione contends that the theoretical difference between these two approaches is obvious. The abolitionist position is that we cannot justify our use of nonhumans however "humanely" we treat animals; the regulationist position is that animal use is justifiable and that only issues of treatment are relevant. Francione describes as "new welfarists" those who claim to support animal rights, but who support animal welfare regulation as the primary way to achieve incremental recognition of the inherent value of nonhumans. He argues that there is no factual support for this position because not only do regulations seldom if ever go beyond treating animals as economic commodities with only extrinsic value, but the perception that regulation has improved the "humane" treatment of animals may very well facilitate continued and increased exploitation by making the public feel more comfortable about its consumption of animal products. A central tenet of Francione's philosophy is that the most important form of incremental change within the abolitionist framework is
veganism. Francione has also long argued that the animal rights movement is the logical extension of the peace movement and should embrace a non-violent approach. He maintains that an abolitionist/vegan movement is truly radical and that violence is reactionary.
Relevance of sentience In his
Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? (2000), Francione argues that a theory of abolition should not require that animals have any cognitive characteristic beyond sentience to be full members of the
moral community, entitled to the basic, pre-legal right not to be the property of humans. He rejects the position that animals have to have humanlike cognitive characteristics, such as reflective self-awareness, language ability, or preference autonomy in order to have the right not to be used by humans as resources. Francione derives this right from the principle of equal consideration in that he maintains that if animals are property, their interests can never receive equal consideration. As part of this discussion, Francione identifies what he calls our "moral schizophrenia" when it comes to nonhumans. On the one hand, we say that we take animal interests seriously. Francione points to the fact that many of us even live with nonhuman companions whom we regard as members of our families and whose personhood—their status as beings with intrinsic moral value—we do not doubt for a second. On the other hand, because animals are property, they remain things that have no value other than what we choose to accord them and whose interests we protect only when it provides a benefit—usually economic—to do so. According to Francione, if animals are going to matter morally and not be things, we cannot treat them as property. Francione debated the sentience of plants with
Michael Marder in a debate organized by
Columbia University Press.
Animal rights movement Francione opposes violence in the struggle for animal rights.
Views on transgender people Francione has long maintained that human rights and animal rights are inextricably intertwined and has promoted feminism. He is of the view that gender ideology, which he defines as the view that gender identity can trump biological sex and serve as the basis for claims that sees as harmful to women, is misogynistic. He says that trans people should not suffer discrimination in the distribution of social goods because they are trans but identifies as
gender critical. == Personal life ==