A new book that asks: Are some animals more equal than others? And what kind of animal are we? has recently been published.  From fox hunting to factory food via medical testing Do animals have rights? provides a uniquely balanced perspective on the turbulent animal rights debate.

Animal rights is an emotive issue never far from the news.  But it is often hard to know who to believe: radical animal rights protestors who claim that humans and animals should have equal rights; or scientists who argue that it is always legitimate to use animals for our benefit.

The book by Bristol University philosopher, Dr Alison Hills, examines the arguments for both sides and defends a practical ethics of animals, distinguishing ways in which animals are our equals from ways in which they are not.

Dr Hills, commenting on her book, said: “The animal rights arguments raise the deepest questions of all. 

“In deciding how we should treat animals, we have to reflect not only on the value of animals, but also on what it is to be human, and on the value of human life.”

Dr Alison Hills is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Bristol.  She has written several articles about applied ethics and Kant’s moral philosophy.

Do animal have rights? by Alison Hills is published by Icon Books.  Price £7.99 paperback ISBN 1-84046-623-5.