Posted on 04/27/2014 4:13:57 PM PDT by don-o
How does a thing become a person? In December 2013, the lawyer Steven Wise showed the world how, with a little legal jujitsu, an animal can transition from a thing without rights to a person with legal protections. This Op-Doc video follows Mr. Wise on his path to filing the first-ever lawsuits in the United States demanding limited “personhood” rights for certain animals, on behalf of four captive chimpanzees in New York State. Continue reading the main story Related in Opinion
Dot Earth Blog: A Closer Look at ‘Nonhuman Personhood’ and Animal WelfareJULY 28, 2013
Mr. Wise (who is also the subject of The New York Times Magazine’s cover story this Sunday) has spent more than 30 years developing his strategy for attaining animal personhood rights. After he started his career as a criminal defense lawyer, he was inspired by Peter Singer’s book “Animal Liberation” to dedicate himself to justice for animals. He helped pioneer the study of animal rights law in the 1980s. In 2000, he became the first person to teach the subject at Harvard Law School, as a visiting lecturer. Mr. Wise began developing his animal personhood strategy after struggling with ineffective welfare laws and regulations that fail to keep animals out of abusive environments. Unlike welfare statutes, legal personhood would give some animals irrevocable protections that recognize their critical needs to live in the wild and to not be owned or abused. Continue reading the main story Related Coverage
Should a Chimp Be Able to Sue Its Owner?APRIL 23, 2014
The current focus of Mr. Wise’s legal campaign includes chimpanzees, elephants, whales and dolphins — animals whose unusually high level of intelligence has been recognized by scientific research.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I mean besides that it is OK to kill unborn human beings...
I will grant him this, chimpanzees, elephants, whales and dolphins are several notches smarter than your average Democrat.
And they seem to be able to survive without mooching off the American taxpayer.
I guess they’ll need to count them in the census and allow them to vote and collect welfare benefits.
Also, animals can be on your healthcare plan until the age of 26.
” O the monkeys stand for honesty/giraffes are insincere/elephants are kindly but they’re dumb...’’
I am in agreement with Michael Savage insofar as you can judge a great deal about a nation in how it treats its animals. That said, in modern day Germany it’s illegal to boil lobsters alive since it is considered cruel. A law put on the books by none other than Adolf Hitler.
Personhood resides in ones ability to use reason and logic. Animals are sentient (self-awareness) but do not use logic and rational thought, by and large. Animals are largely deterministic. That is not to say a chimp cannot use a stick to put in a termite hole and get a taste of termite. But on the whole civil rights are not accorded animals because they do not use reason and logic and rational thought.
You obviously have not watched one of my Dobes figure out how to successfully turn different types of door knobs.
:)
My dogs are logical. They know where food comes from and how to get it. They have affectionate responses to my praise. One of them even talks and if you listen carefully, you can determine what she says...which is generally “let’s take a walk” or “I really want a treat.”
Yup, your average Democrat voter.
A Dangerous train of thought! For Cripes sakes, do we consider liberals capable logic and rational thought? Of course not! Shall we declare those of differing beliefs non-human?
I agree completely! I think we Conservatives have a tendency to react to Animal Rights issues with a knee jerk contrary response, mainly because the extremists are typically on the Left. I prefer to formulate my own reactions based on my personal beliefs. I believe it’s perfectly fine to eat humanely raised and slaughtered animals, and to hunt responsibly. Beyond that, unecessary torture of other living creatures repulses me, and as Mr. Savage, I think, would agree, casts doubt on just how “civilized” we really are.
Animals are just animals. Cats are our masters.
What they really mean is that people are just animals, therefore divesting them of all private property and herding them into high-rise containment facilities or killing them outright is perfectly OK.
Yeah, sure and humans are angels too.. RIGHT! (phhht!)
That is Pavlovian, not rationality. But those dissenters who referenced democrats as being without reason and logic do make a strong point. I will have to reevaluate my analysis of this matter.
legal jujitsu — pettifoggery?
What is the difference between my dogs and those with "personhood" who live off money that is extorted from those who are forced to support them? They have no self-awareness, rational thought or logic. They only want what they can get without giving anything up front or in return.
So people are also tasty?
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