If a practice causes animals to suffer it is morally illegitimate ...

If a practice causes animals to suffer it is morally illegitimate, whatever the benefit to humans. ~ Professor Rob Garner

It is not the property status of animals as a legal construct that is preventing their ...

It is not the property status of animals as a legal construct that is preventing their better treatment, but rather a more general ideology that regards intervention to restrict what owners do to animals as illegitimate. It is not the case that animals are regarded in law as mere things. All animal welfare statutes in the Western world recognize the intrinsic value of animals. Insofar as these statutes aren’t enforced, the explanation doesn’t lie in the property status of animals per se but rather in the wider political, cultural and economic climate in which they operate. ~ Professor Rob Garner

Clearly the biggest improvement would consist in not using animals ...

Clearly the biggest improvement would consist in not using animals at all as a source of food or as laboratory subjects ~ Professor Robert Garner