Humans are animals and our birth and development – our creation – is the largest determinant of nonhuman suffering. Our creation also determines at the most basic level how – through participatory democracy and representation – how our legal systems function.

But altering how we have children, for their benefit and the benefit of animals, is rarely discussed because creation ethics involve big questions of racial equity, climate reparations, personal responsibility in parenting, de-growth and liability for the charitable fraud that for decades hid the drivers of the climate crisis.

It’s easier to engage in performative animal rights and law, where we just talk about how legal language refers to animals or how vegan food reduces a small percentage of animals consumed, while the actual benefits to animals and vulnerable humans are undone via growth, and we benefit from a system designed around growth-based investments.

Critical generational studies,  or macro animal rights, starts with the issue of creation  – the first necessary condition for something to accurately or comprehensively refer to animal law, rights, lives, policy, etc.

This work goes beyond static intersections of the human rights that animal rights need, like the right to rescue on a micro level, towards  fair starts in life for children that reduce the growth and inequity doing the most harm to animals, on a macro level.