Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals

The Preface to the 2009 edition of Animal Liberation begins with an update from author Peter Singer on the current state of the animal liberation movement. He addresses footage of cattle being tortured, “pushed around with a forklift,” and ultimately led to a “kill box,” which received widespread media coverage in 2008 (10). Singer argues that the public outrage in response to these videos highlights the thesis of Animal Liberation: that it is “ignorance, rather than indifference to animals, that keeps massive, institutional cruelty to animals in place in the U.S.” (10). 

Singer believes that since the initial publication of the book in 1975, animal rights activists have won several victories, including getting the media to take animal issues more seriously. In 1980, activists succeeded in convincing cosmetics corporations to research alternative methods to animal testing. Fur sales have continued to decline, kill numbers in shelters have gone down, and there have also been significant breakthroughs to improve the quality of life for farm animals abroad. In Switzerland, forcing hens into battery cage systems, often where the cage is too small for the birds to even spread their wings, became illegal in 1991.