The animal liberation or animal rights movement, sometimes called the animal personhood or animal advocacy movement, is a global movement of academics, lawyers, activist groups and campaigns, who seek an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human beings, and who oppose the use of animals in the research, food, clothing, and entertainment industries.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica writes that it is one of the few examples of a social movement that was created, and is to a large degree sustained, by philosophers. "Animal rights," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007.