ABSTRACT
Every philosophical paper must begin with an unproved assumption. This chapter commences with the assumption that there will still be a world five hundred years from, and that it will contain human beings who are very much like us. People have it within their power now, clearly, to affect the lives of these creatures for better or worse by contributing to the conservation or corruption of the environment in which they must live. Protecting the environment now is also a matter of elementary prudence, and insofar as we do it for the next generation already in the persons of our children, it is a matter of love. The main concern is to examine the concept of a right to better understand how that can be. There appears to be no reason why people should require the animal to understand what is going on as a condition for regarding it as a possessor of rights.
