ABSTRACT
Cavalieri offers a brief history of Western ethics, according to which animals have been completely excluded from the moral community. She evaluates more recent views in traditional morality according to which nonhuman beings are considered to be moral patients. Concluding that traditional morality is untenable, she bases her argument on the most widespread moral theory: the universal doctrine of human rights. Since the central criterion for the possession of human rights is intentionality, Cavalieri maintains that because animals are intentional beings, they should also be given the protection from institutional interference provided by shifting animals to being subjects of legal rights.
