It is noted that, whilst some exponents of mainstream ideological positions deliberately exclude non-human animals from moral standing, the orthodox position is that, whilst having moral standing, animals are less morally considerable than humans. The dominance of anthropocentrism in ideological discourse, however, has been increasingly challenged. This challenge has come mainly from within the liberal tradition but thinkers from other ideological traditions--most notably communitarianism, Marxism, conservatism, feminism and ecology--have also sought to argue the case for a greater moral status for animals. It is argued that the success of such a case, whereby animals are regarded as morally equivalent to humans, has a significant effect, not so much on the conceptual morphology of ideologies, as on the distribution of benefits deriving from them.