Short introduction in english

Reasearchers and Students Against Speciesism (swedish abbreviation FSMD) is a non-profit-organization dedicated to promoting animal rights and animal welfare issues, especially with focus on the situation at the University of Stockholm, were we all work or study.

We oppose the cruel and degrading treatment non-human animals are subject to in the university laboratories. We also oppose the cruel practices connected with the raising and killing of animals for food and other animal products.

Underlying ordinary people's brutal and discriminating behaviour towards non-humans are a set of cultural prejudices, which we refer to as speciesism. The term should be understood as a moral parallell to other, more well-known and often debated, forms of oppression such as racism and sexism.

In our view these deeply ingrained attitudes of speciesism lead people to systematically disregard and discriminate non-human animals solely on the basis of species (they eat their flesh, they wear their skin, they use comsmetics tested on animals etc.).

Moreover, these patterns of behaviour are so common that most people take them to be "natural", without ever questioning their deeper moral implications.

It is our opinion, however, that when these speciesist attitudes and practices are more closely scrutinized in the light of modern animal rights philosophy, it is clear that they cannot be morally justified.

This website is one of the channels we use to communicate our convictions to a larger audience and to further the public debate on these crucially important matters.

In solidarity, FSMD