In this paper, I argue that Jürgen Habermas is unable to adequately account for the quasi-moral obligations towards animals that he defends, given his formalism, and that the question of the value of morality as a whole, which presses Habermas in the direction of a general ethics of the species, also presents a challenge for his formal architectonic. Because Habermas’ position is complex and likely unfamiliar, I start with a rather long introduction, with the aim of providing an initial account of at least the normative aspects of his discourse theory.