The Western world is currently gripped by an obsessive concern for the rights of animals - their uses and abuses. In this book, Leahy argues that this is a movement based upon a series of fundamental misconceptions about the basic nature of animals. This is a radical philosophical questioning of prevailing views on animal rights, which credit animals with a self-consciousness like ours. Leahy's conclusions have implications for issues such as bloodsports, meat eating and fur trading.
A radical questioning of what the author sees as the dangerously anthropomorphic views of Singer or Regan. Using philosophical theories such as Wittgenstein's views on language, Leahy shows that we are wrong to credit animals with consciousness.
