L3 and her fight for droid liberation is partly homologous to animal liberation in the real world.
Droids are treated by many like they’re not sentient, despite the fact that they are. In Solo, L3 says "Droid rights! We are sentient!". They feel a range of organic-like emotions (fear, anxiety, grief, happiness, etc), become attached to other droids and organics, have individual personalities, and desire to live. (Yes, droids can and do consider themselves as “alive” despite the fact that they’re inorganic/not alive in the traditional sense as explained by L3 in Last Shot). Non-human animals also share all of these characteristics (and they are alive in the same way humans are, unlike droids).
L3: Sure, some guy in a factory probably pieced me together originally, and someone else programmed me, so to speak, but then the galaxy itself forged me into who I am. Because we learn, Lando. We're programmed to learn. Which means we grow. We grow away from that singular moment of creation, become something new with each changing moment of our lives--yes, lives--(...)
Similarly to non-human animals, droids are exploited for entertainment (eg zoos; droid fights) and unpaid labor (eg horse carriages; ship repair), used for parts (eg elephant tusk markets; droid part markets), and not generally considered in moral decisions in ways that are completely legal. The only circumstances in which they are considered are ones where sentient organics care for a particular droid. This is comparable to how humans treat animals considered pets vs animals considered resources.
Side note: Their labor doesn’t have to be unpaid just because they’re droids. For example, IG-11 and Highsinger work as bounty hunters and get paid just like their organic counterparts do. Droids are often not paid simply because it’s easier to subjugate them. This is done via physical entrapment, forced dependency, and the use of restraining bolts, which both L3 and C-3PO condemn.
Droids are largely considered “lesser than” by sentient organics, as very well exemplified by the episode in TCW where Anakin loses R2D2. Obi-Wan and Plo Koon both express sadness for the loss of R2 (because of the toll it takes on Anakin, not because of R2’s loss itself) but ultimately consider it wasteful to go after him. Only when Anakin reveals that if R2 were to be captured the Separatists would gain classified information does the Republic actually care to make finding R2 a priority, or even something worth considering. The words "it's just a droid", said by Obi-Wan in this episode, seem to be a very common sentiment across organic sentients.
This is not a critique of the Jedi or the Republic specifically, as droid sentience and rights is an issue misunderstood by the majority of people.
The same thing is shown in another TCW episode where Dooku defends the actions of the Separatists by saying their use of droids for battle is more ethical than the Republic's use of (human) clones. Although it seems to be well-known that droids do feel physical pain (eg Gamorrean guards at Jabba's Palace in ROTJ are shown torturing a droid, who is screaming in pain), the Separatist Senate agrees with Dooku's argument.
Again, non-human animals are also treated as disposable simply because of their non-human status despite lengthy scientific evidence reporting on their sentience.
Droids are also bought and sold and frequently kept as slaves. Because droids are programmed to fulfill specific functions for sentient organics, they generally comply with whatever their owners ask of them, but that doesn't mean that what they do is voluntary. Although programming is inherent to building a droid, it's clear that there are degrees to how much freedom a droid is allowed to exercise (based on the program). L3 said "You've been neurowashed. Don't just blindly follow the program!" in Solo. "Neurowashing" implies that there is droid free will which can be washed in the first place, meaning that what a droid is (re)programmed to do does not reflect their actual independent desires.
Non-human animals are also bought and sold and enslaved their entire lives to fulfill a particular purpose for humans despite their own wants and needs. They can also be trained to act in certain ways to make it easier for humans to use them (eg horse-back riding).
Perhaps one of the biggest similarities between the droid rights movement and the animal liberation movement (other than the part about sentience) is that both are treated by and large as a joke or ludicrous idea. They are both fringe ideologies. This is because of how normalized droid/animal use is in respective societies, specifically in contexts where that use is unnecessary and purely done for the sake of the pleasure, comfort, or profit of others.
Lando: You need anything? / L3: Equal rights? / Lando: *sighs*
L3: I know who I am and that all my talk about droid rights and everything else makes people uncomfortable.
It's important to note that exploiting droids is almost always unnecessary in the same way that exploiting non-human animals is almost always unnecessary. For more information on diets that exclude animal exploitation and any concerns about nutrition or cost, please refer to appropriate medical websites/scientific papers.
For the sake of fairness, I also think it's important to point out ways in which both movements differ. The first is that droids are capable of communicating with sentient organics through shared language (basic, and even binary), while the same is not the case for humans and non-human animals. This means that droids are capable of voicing their own concerns about being exploited while non-human animals cannot.
Another very important difference is that droids are not eaten by organics for the simple and obvious reason that it's impossible to. And at the same time humanoids do consume non-humanoid animals, with no regard for their lives. The same hierarchy of pet > food exists.
There are many people across the galaxy who have no choice in eating them because they're so impoverished that they will eat anything they can get their hands on, and others may simply live on planets where the crops that grow are not enough to keep them healthy without eating other animals. It's not like supermarkets are ever shown to exist.
However, there are also many people who could not eat them (eg rich Chandrilan or Coruscanti citizens, people with access to all needed nutrients through their planet's native crops, people with access to imported crops that fulfill their nutritional needs) and choose to simply for pleasure or convenience.
(gif credit: @ironmaidenhead, @fyeahsolo, x, x, @winterswake)
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