Interview by Roland Windsor Vincent
The rights to be free from exploitation, slavery, abuse, and murder, among those rights we humans declare for ourselves, are not accorded to animals by any government in the world.
Of all animal activists, there are few who operate in the rarefied air of Animal Rights. Those whose efforts are actually directed at changing law and government. And the most prominent of those activists is Steven M Wise. All the rest of us are working on animal protection and animal welfare.
Steven M Wise is President of the Nonhuman Rights Project. He holds a J.D. from Boston University Law School and a B.S. in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary. He has practiced animal protection law for 38 years throughout the United States. He teaches “Animal Rights Jurisprudence” at the Lewis and Clark, Vermont and St. Thomas Law Schools, and at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and has taught “Animal Rights Law” at the Harvard, University of Miami, and John Marshall Law Schools.
He is the author of Rattling the Cage – Toward Legal Rights for Animals (2000); Drawing the Line – Science and the Case for Animal Rights (2003) Though the Heavens May Fall – The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery (2005), and An American Trilogy – Death, Slavery, and Dominion Along the Banks of the Cape Fear River (2009). A documentary about the work of the Nonhuman Rights Project that focuses on the first cases in which it sought common law writs of habeas corpus in four New York Supreme Courts on behalf of four chimpanzees will be released by DA Pennebaker, 2012 recipient of an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and his wife and fellow filmmaker, Chris Hegedus in late 2015.
I approached Steven M Wise about the possibility of his doing an interview with Species and Class. He kindly agreed. This is the interview I conducted, which I am pleased to also publish on the Armory of the Revolution. Continue reading at: speciesandclass.com
GR: Interesting post. Respect and concern for nonhuman sentient beings is an important element of human nature. The element is activated at varying ages and by many possible events. Its development parallels every individual’s growing wisdom. Perhaps our species’ true greatest-achievement award is sapience–wisdom that we gain during our lives.
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Wildlife managers and conservationists are often faced with dilemmas in which they are forced to choose the less bad of two bad choices. For example, some might argue that limited trophy hunting is preferable to habitat loss, if it encourages landowners to maintain ecosystems in their natural state (or something close to it). Here’s another dilemma: is it better to swap older street lights for LED lamps, even if the new energy-saving bulbs are detrimental for declining wildlife? These are not easy decisions to make, but in order to make them it helps to know exactly what the stakes are. Sourced through Scoop.it from: conservationmagazine.org
GarryRogers Nature Conservation 