Part I. Contemporary realities -- Down on the factory farm/ Peter Singer -- Experiments on animals / Richard Ryder -- Part II. Animal and human nature -- God created man in His own image / The Bible -- How humans differ from other creatures / Aristotle -- Differences between rational and other creatures / Saint Thomas Aquinas -- Animals are machines / René Descartes -- A reply to Descartes /Voltaire -- Of the reason of animals / David Hume -- Comparison of the mental powers of man and the lower animals / Charles Darwin -- The language of animals /Michel De Montaigne -- Teaching chimpanzees to communicate/ Peter Jenkins -- The concept of beastliness / Mary Midgley -- Part III. Do humans have obligations to other animals? -- Animals and slavery / Aristotle -- Of eating of flesh / Plutarch -- On killing living things and the duty to love irrational creatures / Saint Thomas Aquinas -- Duties to animals / Immanuel Kant -- A critique of Kant / Arthur Schopenhauer -- A Utilitarian view / Jeremy Bentham -- A defense of Bentham / John Stuart Mill -- The ethic of reverence for life / Albert Schweitzer -- The humanities of diet / Henry S. Salt -- All animals are equal / Peter Singer -- A defense of vivisection / Robert J. White -- Part IV. Do animals have rights? -- Animals' rights / Henry S. Salt -- Of the so-called rights of animals / Joseph Rickaby -- Why animals do not have rights/ D.G. Ritchie -- Logic of the larder / Henry S. Salt --Can animals have rights? / Joel Feinberg -- Do animals have a right to life? / Tom Regan -- Do animals have a right to liberty? / James Rachels -- Defending animals by appeal to rights / Donald VanDeveer -- A reply to VanDeVeer / James Rachels -- Epilogue -- A modest proposal/ Jonathan Swift -- The limits of Trooghaft / Desmond Stewart.