More recent frameworks (e.g., the ) add positive experiences (comfort, pleasure, agency) as welfare goals.

: Prevention and rapid medical treatment.

A mature ethical position likely requires a synthesis. The absolutism of rights provides a necessary moral compass, reminding us that animals are not widgets. It fuels the crucial insight that sentience, not intelligence or language, is the currency of moral concern. However, a purely rights-based world is not imminent. In the interim, the welfare approach is indispensable. The most effective path forward is to use the spirit of rights to drive the substance of welfare. This means rejecting "happy exploitation" as a final goal, while fighting for bans on the worst cruelties (e.g., gestation crates, force-feeding for foie gras, cosmetic testing). It means expanding legal personhood for great apes and cetaceans, not because they will vote, but because their cognitive complexity demands it.