ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses animal rights as a political movement and as a belief system for that movement, and the implications of these views for zoo-based conservation efforts. It examines the two main philosophies espoused by the movement, utilitarianism and deontology. The chapter explores how the philosophies driving the animal rights movement may differ from those underlying the conservation efforts of the zoo/aquarium profession, and how these may have a temporizing effect on certain of the latter's activities. It is fair to presume that zoo professionals are strongly committed to animal welfare but less so to animal rights. Valuing individuals above the taxon to which they belong is widely characterized by holists as being biologically naive. Another criticism leveled by holists at the animal rights ethic is its valuing of individuals on the basis of a common metric such as sentience or awareness that is a value system that leaves much of the natural world outside the moral community.
