Steven Wise: The Most Important Animal-Rights Case of the 21st Century

“The reason that you should accept our client as having rights is because we're showing what an extraordinary being she is. These beings have mirror self-recognition, they know that they are elephants. In fact, we listed 42 different, highly complex cognitive abilities that elephants have. If you didn't know it was an elephant, you’d think [I was] talking about what a human being does.” - Steven Wise

 

 

There is an elephant who lives all by herself in a small enclosure at the Bronx Zoo. Her name is Happy. She arrived at the zoo in 1977, a few years after she’d been kidnapped from the wild in Thailand.

The Bronx Zoo claims that Happy is Happy. The best elephant cognition scientist in the world have argued that she's anything but. And most of us regular human beings can see that an isolated elephant in a tiny enclosure is not living a good life.

Steven Wise is the founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project. In 2018, the Nonhuman Rights Project brought a petition for writ of habeas corpus on Happy’s behalf. Habeas corpus is a common law right that protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment. In Happy’s case, the NhRP are seeking recognition of her fundamental right to bodily liberty and transfer to an elephant sanctuary.

Last spring, the New York court of appeals, the highest court in the state of New York, agreed to hear Happy’s case. This is the first time in history that the highest court of any English-speaking jurisdiction will hear a habeas corpus case brought on behalf of someone other than a human being.

In a story for the Atlantic, Jill Lepore called Happy’s case, “the most important animal-rights case of the 21st Century.”

Steven Wise has been working toward this since 1980.

LINKS:

The Nonhuman Rights Project  https://www.nonhumanrights.org/

Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/nonhuman.rights.project/

Twitter  https://twitter.com/nonhumanrights

FB  https://www.facebook.com/NonhumanRights

Steven’s TED Talk   https://www.ted.com/speakers/steven_wise