The Concept of Blanket Legal Personhood
Blanket legal personhood for all animals proposes shifting animals from human property to beings with inherent legal rights. While it seeks to protect them from exploitation and cruelty, it faces enormous logistical hurdles, as applying human like civil rights globally would radically upend agriculture, medical research, and property laws. The industrial exploitation of animals represents the primary economic and systemic barrier to granting animals legal personhood.
Advocates of the Personhood Movement argue that sentient beings require legal recognition to have rights protected. Just as the law has expanded to include marginalized human groups who where once considered property, proponents argue that personhood can and should apply to all animals as non-human legal persons.