Disclaimer: This website has no affiliation with any of the books or authors listed here. They are included because they are inspirational and informative. However, please know that any speciesism (discrimination against and objectification of persons of other land and sea species) promoted in any of these books is not vegan and only serves to continue the oppression of and injustices committed against persons of other land and sea species. A few of many examples of speciesism are: (1) talking of only "factory farming" rather than all "farming" of other species; (2) talking of being vegetarian, because most vegetarians continue to support using other species for various human purposes; (3) talking of reducing rather than eliminating using persons of other land and sea species for human purposes; (4) talking of not eating "meat" while still using other species for other human purposes; (5) etc.

Animal Rights
The Abolitionist Approach

By Gary L. Francione and Anna Charlton, 2015

The exploitation of animals is pervasive, entrenched, and horrific. In this book, the authors reject the idea that animal use is acceptable if we treat animals “humanely.” They reject the campaigns for “compassionate” exploitation promoted by virtually all large animal protection organizations. These campaigns, the authors argue, reinforce the notion that we can consume our way out of injustice and trade one form of exploitation for another. They are ethically wrong and they are, as a practical matter, ineffective.
     The central argument of this book is that we need a paradigm shift. We must see nonhuman animals as nonhuman persons.
     This paradigm shift—this revolution of the heart—starts with our own veganism, not as some sort of “flexitarian lifestyle” issue, but as a basic, fundamental, and non-negotiable commitment to justice and fairness for nonhuman animals. Veganism, as an ethical imperative, recognizes that we have no justification for using animals —however “humanely”— for our purposes. It continues with our daily efforts to educate others in creative, positive, and nonviolent ways about veganism—something that each of us can do if we want to. Is it easier to write a check to someone else than do the work ourselves? Of course it is. But it won’t work because the large advocacy organizations are not seeking to end animal exploitation; they are, by promoting the idea of “compassionate” animal use, seeking instead to make the public feel more comfortable about continuing to exploit animals.

Mind if I Order the Cheeseburger?
And Other Questions People Ask Vegans

By Sherry F. Colb, 2013

What about plants? Don't animals eat other animals? There are no perfect vegans, so why bother? If you're vegan, how many times have you been asked these, and other similarly challenging, questions from non-vegans? Using humor and reason, Sherry F. Colb takes these questions at face value and also delves deeply into the motivations behind them, coming up with answers that are not only intelligent but insightful about human nature. Through examples, case studies, and clear-eyed logic, she provides arguments for everything from why veganism is compatible with the world's major religions to why vegetarianism is not enough. In the end, she shows how it is possible for vegans and non-vegans to engage in a mutually beneficial conversation without descending into counterproductive name-calling.

Eat Like You Care
An Examination of the Morality of Eating Animals

By Gary L. Francione and Anna Charlton, 2013

The best justification we have for the unimaginable amount of suffering and death that we impose on animals is that they taste good. But how is this any different from Michal Vick claiming that his dogfighting operation was justifiable because he enjoyed watching dogs fight? Vick liked sitting around a pit watching animals fight. We enjoy sitting around a summer barbecue pit roasting the corpses of animals who had lives and deaths that were as bad as, if not worse than, Vick’s dogs. What is the difference between Michael Vick and those of us who eat animals? There are many excuses that have kept us from stopping our consumption of animals. The authors explore the 30+ excuses they have heard as long-time vegans and address each one, showing why these excuses don’t work. Packed with clear, commonsense thinking on animal ethics, without jargon or complicated theory, this book will change the way you think about who and what you eat.

Advocate for Animals
An Abolitionist Vegan Handbook

By Gary L. Francione and Anna Charlton, 2017

Since the beginning of time, there have been—in total—about 110 billion humans who have lived and died. We kill more nonhuman animals than that every single year. Think about that for a second. Our exploitation of nonhumans represents violence on a scale that is unparalleled. The largest number of animals we kill is for food—about 60 billion land animals and at least one trillion sea animals killed annually. And there are many billions more killed every year for various other reasons.
     For the past two hundred years, animal advocacy has focused on treatment. That is, animal advocates have campaigned to get supposedly more “humane” treatment standards. That approach has been a failure and has only made people feel more comfortable about continuing to exploit animals. Abolition involves a clear and explicit rejection of the animal welfare position—the idea that it is morally acceptable to use animals as long as we treat them in a “humane” way. In order to abolish animal exploitation, we must abolish animal exploitation from our individual lives. If we believe that animals matter as individuals, we must go vegan. We must stop eating, wearing, and using animals to the greatest extent practicable. And we must engage in creative, nonviolent vegan advocacy in order to convince others to go vegan.

Although the following books may be too expensive for some to purchase, they may be available in a library.

These books unequivocally explain and clarify that what humans the world over do to individuals of other land and sea species is not normal or necessary. Rather, it is a learned social conditioning that in actuality is a monumental social injustice and atrocity.

As we humans wouldn't advocate or educate for anything less than the cessation of
human-on-human injustices, so too, the exploitation of non-human land and sea individuals by humans needs to be abolished in its entirety. Not regulated. Not reduced. Abolished. And peaceful, non-violent vegan education is the most effective means of achieving and maintaining this outcome on their behalf.

Tom Regan

Defending Animal Rights

By Tom Regan, 2001

A multifaceted response to the question, “Do animals have rights?” from an intellectual leader in the animal rights movement. More than a contest of wills representing professional and economic interests, the animal rights debate is also an enduring topic in normative ethical theory. Defending Animal Rights addresses the key issues in this sometimes acrimonious debate. Tom Regan responds thoughtfully to his critics while dismantling the conception that "all and only" human beings are worthy of the moral status that is the basis of rights. Systematically unraveling claims that human beings are rational and therefore entitled to superior moral status, Regan defends the inherent value of all individuals who are "subjects of a life" and decries the speciesism that pretends to separate human from nonhuman animals.

Animal Rights, Human Wrongs
An Introduction to Moral Philosophy

By Tom Regan, 2003

What gives an animal 'rights?' What makes product testing on animals wrong? In Animal Rights, Human Wrongs, prominent activist and philosopher, Tom Regan, skillfully puts forth the argument for animal rights through the exploration of two questions central to moral theory: What makes an act right? What makes an act wrong? Regan provides the theoretical framework that grounds a responsible pro-animal rights perspective, and ultimately explores how asking moral questions about other animals can lead to a better understanding of ourselves. The necessity of making a transition from moral theory to moral practice becomes startlingly clear as Reagan examines the commonplace, everyday choices that would be affected by believing in a moral theory that affirms the rights of animals. For the many people who have ever wondered "what difference does it make if animals have rights," Animal Rights, Humans Wrongs provides a provocative and intriguing answer.

Empty Cages
Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights

By Tom Regan, 2004

Described by Jeffrey Masson as 'the single best introduction to animal rights ever written,' this new book by Tom Regan will structure the animal rights debate for generations to come. In a style at once simple and elegant, Regan dispels the negative image of animal rights advocates perpetrated by the mass media, unmasks the fraudulent rhetoric of 'humane treatment' favored by animal exploiters, and explains why existing laws function to legitimize institutional cruelty. Written by the leading philosophical spokesperson for animal rights, Tom Regan's shocking exposZ of animal abuse makes an essential and lasting contribution that will significantly impact the history of animal rights advocacy in America.

The Animal Rights Debate

By Tom Regan & Carl Cohen, 2001

Tom Regan is without doubt the world's greatest defender of the rights of animals. Carl Cohen is one of Regan's notable critics. Here, between the pages of a single volume, are important new contributions from each of these authors. The resulting text is required reading for everyone interested in this critical issue. (Gary Comstock, Iowa State University)

The book would make an ideal main text in a seminar on animals, ethics, and science for advanced undergraduate or graduate students in philosophy, biological sciences, experimental psychology, or the health-professions, including veterinary sciences. (Journal Of The American Psychoanalytic Association)

A tour de force of brilliant debate. No other 'seeing the issues from both sides' book comes close to this one in the sustained power of argumentation and in its thorough canvassing of the issues surrounding everything that might be said about the ethical treatment of animals. Quite simply, the best book of its kind. (Sidney Gendin, Eastern Michigan University)

The two [Regan and Cohen] argue vigorously and write clearly, producing an engaging, accessible book. (Ethics)

The Case for Animal Rights

By Tom Regan, 1983, 1985, 2004

More than twenty years after its original publication, The Case for Animal Rights is an acknowledged classic of moral philosophy, and its author is recognized as the intellectual leader of the animal rights movement. In a new and fully considered preface, Regan responds to his critics and defends the book's revolutionary position.

Gary Francione

Animals, Property, and the Law

By Gary L. Francione, 1995

Francione argues that the current legal standard of animal welfare does not and cannot establish fights for animals. As long as they are viewed as property, animals will be subject to suffering for the social and economic benefit of human beings. Exploring every facet of this heated issue, Francione discusses the history of the treatment of animals, anticruelty statutes, vivisection, the Federal Animal Welfare Act, and specific cases such as the controversial injury of anaesthetized baboons at the University of Pennsylvania. He thoroughly documents the paradoxical gap between our professed concern with humane treatment of animals and the overriding practice of abuse permitted by U.S. law.

Rain Without Thunder
An Abolitionist Vegan Handbook

By Gary L. Francione, 1996

In this wide-ranging book, Francione takes the reader through the philosophical and intellectual debates surrounding animal welfare to make clear the difference between animal rights and animal welfare. Through case studies such as campaigns against animal shelters, animal laboratories, and the wearing of fur, Francione demonstrates the selectiveness and confusion inherent in reformist programs that target fur, for example, but leave wool and leather alone.

Introduction to Animal Rights
Your Child or the Dog?

By Gary L. Francione, 2000

Two-thirds of Americans polled by the Associated Press agree with the following statement: "An animal's right to live free of suffering should be just as important as a person's right to live free of suffering." More than 50 percent of Americans believe that it is wrong to kill animals to make fur coats or to hunt them for sport. But these same Americans eat hamburgers, take their children to circuses and rodeos, and use products developed with animal testing. How do we justify our inconsistency? In this easy-to-read introduction, animal rights advocate Gary Francione looks at our conventional moral thinking about animals. Using examples, analogies, and thought-experiments, he reveals the dramatic inconsistency between what we say we believe about animals and how we actually treat them.

Animals as Persons
Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation

By Gary L. Francione, 2009

In this collection, Francione further advances the theory of animal rights. For example, unlike Peter Singer, Francione maintains that we cannot morally justify using animals under any circumstances, and unlike Tom Regan, Francione's theory applies to all sentient beings, not only to those who have more sophisticated cognitive abilities. Francione does not attack anyone personally. Rather he uses a calm, rational approach to explain the discrepancies inherent in welfare objections to the justifications for abolishing the exploitation of non-human animals.

Sherry Colb, Michael Dorf

Beating Hearts
Abortion and Animal Rights

By Sherry F. Colb and Michael C. Dorf, 2016

How can someone who condemns hunting, animal farming, and animal experimentation also favor legal abortion, the deliberate destruction of a human fetus? The authors of Beating Hearts aim to reconcile this apparent conflict and examine the surprisingly similar strategic and tactical questions faced by activists in the pro-life and animal-rights movements.