#全国首个伴侣动物立法草案被删除#
关于“动物为什么不能成为权利主体”（也就是为什么不存在“伴侣动物”法律地位）这个命题，罗杰·斯克鲁顿无疑是思考最深刻，表达最浅显的哲学家之一，他的《动物权利及谬误》一书中有如下金句：

原文：
“The concept of the person belongs to the ongoing dialogue which binds the moral community. Creatures who are by nature incapable of entering into this dialogue have neither rights nor duties nor personality. If animals had rights, then we should require their consent before taking them into captivity, training them, domesticating them or in any way putting them to our uses. But there is no conceivable process whereby this consent could be delivered or withheld. Furthermore, a creature with rights is duty-bound to respect the rights of others. The fox would be duty-bound to respect the right to life of the chicken, and whole species would be condemned out of hand as criminal by nature.”

译文：
“人格的概念属于维系道德共同体的持续对话。那些在本性上无法进入这种对话的生物，既没有权利，也没有义务，也没有人格。如果动物拥有权利，那么我们在将其关进笼子、训练它们、驯化它们或以任何方式利用它们之前，就必须征得它们的同意。但不存在任何可以传达或拒绝这种同意的可设想过程。此外，拥有权利的生物有义务尊重他者的权利。狐狸将有义务尊重鸡的生命权，而整个物种将因本性而被直接判定为罪犯。”

原文：
“By ascribing rights to animals, and so promoting them to full membership of the moral community, we tie them in obligations that they can neither fulfil nor comprehend. Not only is this senseless cruelty in itself; it effectively destroys all possibility of cordial and beneficial relations between us and them. Only by refraining from personalizing animals do we behave towards them in ways that they can understand.”

译文：
“通过赋予动物权利，从而将其提升为道德共同体的正式成员，我们实际上是将它们束缚在它们既无法履行也无法理解的义务之中。这本身不仅是一种无意义的残酷；它还有效地摧毁了我们与它们之间一切亲切且有益的关系。只有避免将动物人格化，我们才能以它们能够理解的方式对待它们。”

原文：
“Negotiation, compromise, and agreement form the basis of all successful human communities. And this is the true ground of the moral distinction that we make, and ought to make, between our own and other species.”
“Animals have neither duties nor rights… define strategies with which we coordinate our social life, but which we can only use when dealing with others who also use them.”

译文：
“谈判、妥协和协议构成了所有成功人类共同体的基础。这正是我们在自己物种与其他物种之间做出（且应当做出）道德区分的真正基础。”
“动物既没有义务也没有权利……[这些概念] 定义了我们协调社会生活的策略，但只有在与同样使用这些策略的他者打交道时，我们才能使用它们。”