Everything about animal rights is controversial. Its history is no exception. When the movement for animal rights began is difficult to say. It is generally accepted that the modern animal rights movement began with the publication in the middle of 1970s of Peter Singer's book, "Animal Liberation", which has been regarded as the bible of the animal rights movement. In the 1980s and 1990s, the movement was joined by a variety of academic groups, including philosophers, lawyers, physicians and veterinarians. The movement aims to include animals in the moral community and to remove animals the status of property and to award them personhood that is legal rights to protect their basic interests.
Generally speaking, animal rights is the concept that all or some animals are entitled to possess their own lives and that they are deserving of certain moral rights. This view rejects the concept that animals are merely property and is often confused with animal welfare which the philosophy that takes consideration of animal suffering into account. The modern animal rights movement consists of various animal protection organizations which can be devided into roughly three categories; Some see animals as objects of compassion, but acknowledges some boundaries between species. They seek to avoid animal cruelty. Others believe that animals deserve moral consideration, and their explicit goal is to eliminate all unnecessary suffering by redcing and replacing uses of animals. A third group argues that animals have absolute moral and legal rights to personal autonomy and self-determination. They seek total abolition of all animal exploitation.
Animal rights activists have been becoming increasingly militant since the mid-1980s, and willing to threaten people, such as animal researchers as well as corporate employees. Inter alia, Animal Liberation Front(ALF) is an extreme, decentralized, non-membership based animal rights activist organization. ALF's objective is to end animal abuse by liberating animals from exploitative situations and carries out direct action against animal abuse in the form of rescuing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters. It is classified as a terrorist group by the FBI.
The animal rights movement is now at a critical crossroads. It faces intense opposition from industries with vested economic interests. If the movement is to survive these challenges and achieve its goals, it needs both inner solidarity and goals as well as strong alliances with other similar organizations. What is more important, however, is to find the ways enhancing the status of animals in the legal system and to develop the attitude of the general public toward animals.