Activist looks to secure human rights for primates, elephants

"Unlocking the Cage,' a book, soon to be a documentary. (Courtesy image)

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. - Nationally recognized animal rights activist and attorney Steven Wise will discuss the Nonhuman Rights Project, "the only civil rights organization in the country working to achieve actual legal rights for members of species other than our own"--at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 21, in Chase Community Center on the Vermont Law School campus. The event is open to the public and press.

Wise's talk is sponsored by VLS Social Justice Mission Scholars and Animal Law Society with support from the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

"In addition to championing the concept that all people have a right to be treated equally under the law, the Social Justice Mission Scholars identified another focus area - defending the dignity and justice of all animals," said Mission Scholar William Lowrey '17. "We felt that Mr. Wise's 30-year legal battle for formal, legal recognition of animals, now driven through the Nonhuman Rights Project, was a manifestation of that value with significance and relevance to law students."

"Our hope is that people attending the presentation will leave with a better understanding of the current position of animals in our legal system, and the inherent consequences and a greater appreciation of the ways in which the law can impact, for better or for worse, the nonhuman animals that share this world with us," Lowrey said.

The NhRP president's work has drawn national attention, including coverage by The New York Times. "Mr. Wise's group does not try to hide its goal of using the suits as test cases to promote a novel legal theory that some animals--among them great apes, dolphins and elephants--share enough human traits to be deemed persons under the law and thus should not be held in captivity."

Wise, who has practiced animal protection law for 30 years, teaches Animal Rights Jurisprudence during summer sessions at VLS. He earned a juris doctor from Boston University Law School and a bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary.

After the talk at VLS, Wise will be available to sign his book, "Unlocking the Cage" (Basic Books, 2002), the subject of a documentary slated to air on HBO and the BBC sometime this year. For more information about Wise and the Nonhuman Rights Project, visit nonhumanrights.org.