Tom Regan

Renowned animal rights activist to speak at NIU

Tom Regan, an internationally renowned animal rights activist and Pulitzer Prize nominee, will visit NIU early next month for a lecture on the moral rights of animals.

Regan helped found the modern animal rights movement. His lecture, titled “Animal Rights: An Introduction,” will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 4, in the Wirtz Hall auditorium. The event, sponsored by NIU’s Vegetarian Education Group, is free and open to the public.

Regan’s arguments for animal rights call into question many aspects of our daily life, from the food we eat to the clothes we wear. “Professor Regan challenges virtually every aspect of our treatment of animals,” said Mylan Engel Jr., a professor of philosophy at NIU.

“Basically, he argues that the same considerations that justify human rights can be logically extended to animals,” Engel said. “Just as we have come to believe that you can’t restrict moral rights on the basis of race or gender, he argues that we can’t restrict rights on the basis of species.”

Regan is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University, where he has received numerous teaching awards. He also is the founder and president of the Culture and Animals Foundation. He is the recipient of countless awards, including the Joseph Wood Krutch Award from the Humane Society of the United States.

Regan is widely regarded as being among the founders of the modern animal rights movement. He has published more than 20 books, including his groundbreaking 1983 work, “The Case for Animal Rights.”

His most recent book, “Empty Cages: Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights,” has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. “Empty Cages” tells the story of Regan’s journey, from the time he worked as a butcher to his position today as the world’s leading philosophical spokesperson for animal rights.

Copies of “Empty Cages” will be on sale at the lecture, and the author will be available for a book-signing following his event.

NIU’s Vegetarian Education Group [VEG] is a non-profit student organization dedicated to educating the community about the benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets. For more information about VEG and Regan’s upcoming lecture, call (815) 753-6405, e-mail VEG@niu.edu or visit http://www.sa.niu.edu/veg/home.htm.

3-22-04