Whether or not you describe it as "rights", the concept of animal cruelty has been around for centuries. Probably millennia. And the great majority of people

Whether or not you describe it as "rights", the concept of animal cruelty has been around for centuries. Probably millennia. And the great majority of people seem comfortable with shades-of-gray classifications of animals for that purpose. If some kid is capturing squirrels and torturing them, he's "obviously" a psychopathic sicko. Vs. if Ed's Exterminators is fleabombing some cat lady's house - nobody's getting worked up about Evil Ed "gassing" the poor, innocent fleas.