For most of human history, animals were legally classified as things (property). There were laws against cruelty (e.g., Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1641), but these were usually to prevent public indecency or protect the owner’s economic asset, not for the animal’s sake.
Sociologist Dr. Melanie Joy coined the term "carnism" to describe the invisible belief system that conditions us to eat certain animals (cows, pigs, chickens) but not others (dogs, cats, horses). Welfare reforms often function to comfort the eater rather than the eaten. The rights movement seeks to break that psychological conditioning entirely. For most of human history, animals were legally