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Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals
Rattling the Cage is a seminal study on the need to provide animals with legal rights within our man-made legal framework. Creatively developing from the shadows of traditional theoretical animal rights writings, it provides a sensible blueprint for challenging the current paradigm that refuses to recognize non-human animals’ rights. Steven M. Wise, attorney, Harvard Law professor and longtime animal activist, supports his theory by applying the logic of traditional jurisprudence to a previously unrecognized legal arena. Wise suggests that certain non-human primates should be provided with rights of “personhood” instead of the centuries-old tradition of “thinghood.” Wise posits that since chimpanzees and bonobos share over 98 % of human genetic code, it is illogical to exclude them from human legal protection. Furthermore, since they exhibit qualities, such as complex feelings, advanced mental capabilities, learning and teaching skills, they should be treated as our true next of kin. Wise wonders how the legal system can deny rights to any living, breathing, and feeling creature such as a chimpanzee or bonobo whose intelligence is comparable to that of a five year old human child. If we are a society of laws, then we cannot logically or credibly deny extending those laws to chimpanzees and bonobos, he writes. Wise diligently traces the historical roots of human discrimination towards animals: from the earliest legal writings onward, animals have been considered mere “things” with no other purpose than to serve humans. Wise discusses the “thick impenetrable wall” of “thinghood” that has been artificially and intentionally built between humans and animals from the beginning of known civilization in Mesopotamia, through many centuries, including the classic period of Greece and Rome, the development of all Western religions, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution and even through the age of Darwinism. The fact that Wise’s argument only endorses “personhood” for certain species should not detract from the book’s importance and impact. Each positive legal gain helps certain animals and incrementally advances us toward the goal of helping them all. This book’s messages and practical directions are vital to all animals; Rattling the Cage should enhance attorney’s legal training and enable them to protect animals within our legal system in more creative, functional, and successful ways. |
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By Steven M. Wise
