Jeremy Bentham Animal Quotations

The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny.

What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes...

I don't care whether animals are capable of thinking; all I care about is that they are capable of suffering!

The question is not can animals speak but can they suffer.

A civilized society must count animals as worthy of moral consideration and ethical treatment. The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?