Are there Legal Texts in the Hebrew Bible that Evince a Concern for Animal Rights?

Much has been written about animal rights in the four decades since the appearance of Peter Singer's classic monograph Animal Liberation (1975) and not a few studies consider - often in passing - what biblical texts have to contribute to debates about animal rights. These studies are, however, almost exclusively the work of non-specialists. I begin to address this dearth of professional scholarship on this topic by exploring what four biblical laws - Exod. 23:10-11, 12; Lev. 25:2-7 and Deut. 5:12-15 - might suggest about the legal standing of animals. As legal scholar Gary L. Francione states, "[W]e normally use [the term "rights"] to describe a type of protection that does not evaporate in the face of consequential considerations." In this article, I consider whether the four biblical laws in question meet this standard.