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"Anarchism fights domination between people; animals are not part of that."
Anarchism: the principle
Reject hierarchies and forms of domination that cannot be justified.
Why excluding animals contradicts the principle
- The relationship between humans and farmed animals is one of the most complete hierarchies there is: one side decides when the other is born, where it lives, with whom it breeds and when it dies.
- Concern for animals is part of the anarchist tradition itself: the geographer Élisée Reclus defended vegetarianism as part of the same refusal of domination.
The strongest counter-reply
The most serious version says the relevant domination is the kind its victims can refuse, and that animals do not organize against it.
The answer
Being unable to resist is exactly what makes domination more serious, not less. Anarchism does not require the victim to organize for domination to be illegitimate.