Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals is a 1975 book by Australian philosopher
Peter Singer. It is widely considered within the
animal liberation movement to be the founding philosophical statement of its ideas. Singer himself rejected the use of the theoretical framework of
rights when it comes to human and nonhuman animals. Following
Jeremy Bentham, Singer argued that the interests of animals should be considered because of their ability to experience
suffering and that the idea of rights was not necessary in order to consider them. His ethical ideas fall under the umbrella of
biocentrism. He popularized the term "
speciesism" in the book, which had been coined by
Richard D. Ryder to describe the exploitative treatment of animals.