Book Review: Beyond Animal Rights

Beyond Animal Rights: Food, Pets and Ethics seemed from its online description to be an interesting, academic text which elaborated upon basic animal rights issues, with the additional credit of being written by a vegan. I bought this book along with Vegan For Life (previously reviewed) and Animal Rights: What Everyone Needs To Know, in an attempt to broaden my knowledge of veganism and animal rights.

I will begin by saying that I sometimes find it difficult to read things that I vehemently disagree with. I'm not proud of this as I realise that in order to be a fully educated, critical thinker you need to be able to read widely enough to have well-rounded views.

However the ultimate insult of Milligan's book is that it is written by a vegan. He begins by describing himself as an ethical 'pluralist' who is not overly concerned about the rights of animals. He explains that he is a vegan simply because he cannot see any reason for him to eat animal products, yet he describes groups of people who have reason, rationalising that if eating meat is part of your identity its okay to eat it. The preface to a book concerning animal rights should not invoke a sense of disappointment and foreboding, but alas this did.

Beginning the body of the book with a chapter called 'The Depth of Meat-Eating' I could not bring myself to read beyond the second chapter. I am perplexed by a vegan who refers more to high-profile meat-eating foodies Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Michael Pollan than to any animal rights advocates, organisations or theorists. He glorifies the small animal agriculturist, leaving all concerns for animals firmly at the door. The second chapter discusses the idea of a 'contractual agreement' between domesticated animals and those who farm them. To be honest, on this issue the author's writing is so convoluted the reader is left unsure how he feels about this issue, but gets the looming feeling that he veers towards the view that farmers do animals a favour by bringing them into existence.

I am not saying that every vegan must have the same opinion on every issue, I am the first to encourage anyone to think for themselves and form their own opinions. However, this is a surprising and shocking book to come from the pen of a vegan. Perhaps it is my own fault for choosing a welfarist book when my personal opinions lay on the side of abolition.

I cannot say that this is a full review simply because I cannot bring myself to read the rest of the book, it angers me to such an extent. I am not one for personal attacks, I write purely for constructive criticism, but Milligan presents himself as closer to the excuse-itarian (Listen to the Vegetarian Food for Thought Podcast episodes about excuse-itarians or read B.R Myers 'The Moral Crusade Against Foodies) than the vegan.