Is it likely that the pursuit of more “humane” animal treatment will eventually lead to the recognition that animals have the basic right not to be treated as things, and the consequent abolition of institutionalised animal use?

As things stand presently it is not likely. Anticruelty laws have been popular in Australia, Great Britain and the United States for over 100 years and animals are being treated more horribly than ever before.

The flaw with “humane” animal treatment is that it still assigns animals the status of being the property of humans and does not question whether we should be using them in the first place. The problem is trying to balance the interests of property (the animal) against the interests of the property owner and this is a systemic imbalance that will never assign meaningful value to the interests of the animal. “Humane” treatment simply requires that property owners provide a sufficient level of care to their property to ensure that their economic use is optimal. Until this changes, we are unlikely to see any significant changes.