Steven M. Wise
Encyclopedia
Steven M. Wise is an American legal scholar who specializes in animal protection issues, primatology
, and animal intelligence. He teaches animal rights
law at Harvard Law School
, Vermont Law School
, John Marshall Law School
, Lewis & Clark Law School
, and Tufts University
School of Veterinary Medicine. He is a former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund
, and founder and president of the Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights
. The Yale Law Journal
has called him "one of the pistons of the animal rights movement."
Wise is the author of An American Trilogy
(2009), in which he tells the story of how a piece of land in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was first the home of Native Americans until they were driven into near-extinction, then a slave plantation, and finally the site of factory hog farm
s and the world's largest slaughterhouse. Though the Heavens May Fall (2005), recounts the 1772 trial in England of James Somersett, a black man rescued from a ship heading for the West Indies slave markets, which gave impetus to the movement to abolish slavery
in Britain and the United States (see Somersett's Case
). Drawing the Line (2002), which describes the relative intelligence of animals and human beings. And Rattling the Cage (2000), in which he argues that certain basic legal rights should be extended to chimpanzee
s and bonobo
s.
from Boston University
in 1976, and became a personal injury lawyer. He was inspired to move into the area of animal rights after reading Peter Singer
's Animal Liberation (1975), often referred to as the bible of the animal liberation movement
. A practicing animal protection attorney, he is president of the nonprofit Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights, Inc., where he directs its Nonhuman Rights Project, the purpose of which is to obtain basic common law rights for at least some nonhuman animals. He lives in Coral Springs, Florida.
s, meet the criteria of legal personhood, and should therefore be awarded certain rights and protections. His criteria for personhood are that the animal must be able to desire things, to act in an intentional manner to acquire those things, and must have a sense of self i.e. the animals must know that s/he exists. Wise argues that chimpanzees, bonobos, elephants, parrots, dolphins, orangutans, and gorillas meet these criteria.
Wise argues that these animals should have legal personhood bestowed upon them to protect them from "serious infringements upon their bodily integrity and bodily liberty." Without personhood in law, he writes, one is "invisible to civil law" and "might as well be dead."
He writes in "The Problem with Being a Thing" in Rattling the Cage:
In Rattling the Cage, Wise offers examples of primates who he believes have suffered unjustifiably. He writes about Jerom, a chimpanzee who lived alone in a small cage in the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, with no access to sunlight, after being infected with one strain of HIV when he was three, another at the age of four, and a third at the age of five, before dying in 1996 at the age of 14.
Wise also tells the story of Lucy Temerlin
, a six-year-old chimpanzee who learned American Sign Language
from Roger Fouts, the primatologist, and was raised by Maurice K. Temerlin and Temerlin Mcclain. Fouts would arrive at Lucy's home at 8:30 every morning, when Lucy would greet him with a hug, go to the stove, take the kettle, fill it with water from the sink, find two cups and tea bags from the cupboard, and brew and serve the tea. When she was 12, the Temerlins were no longer able to care for her. She was sent to a chimpanzee rehabilitation center in Senegal
, then flown to Gambia, where she was shot and skinned by a poacher, and her feet and hands hacked off for sale as trophies.
is a frequent guest on a wide variety of television and radio shows throughout Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and North America, including National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition," "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," and "The Connection," NBC Nightly News, CBS Nightly News, Fox TV News, Court TV, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN News and "Crossfire," "Voice of America," and the BBC's "Start the Week' with Jeremy Paxman" and "Outlook." He speaks frequently on topics related to animal rights law at law schools, legal conferences, and universities throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and Africa, including Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, University of Vienna Law School, Austria, University of Basel, Switzerland, Lincoln's Inn, London, University of New South Wales Law School, Australia, University of Woolongong Law School, Australia, University of Melbourne Law School, Australia, Monash University Law School, Australia, University of Auckland Law School, New Zealand, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Federal University, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, and the Office for Animal Rights, Florence, Italy.
He has taught "Animal Rights Law" or "Animal Rights Jurisprudence" at the Harvard, Vermont, Lewis and Clark, University of Miami, St. Thomas, and John Marshall Law Schools.
Wise has written four books. While reviewing "An American trilogy," the July/August, 2009 issue of VegNews called him the "John Grisham of the animal rights movement"
Book Chapters
Law Review Articles
http://www.michiganlawreview.org/firstimpressions/vol106/wise.pdf. (2008)
Encyclopedia articles
Primatology
Primatology is the scientific study of primates. It is a diverse discipline and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medicine, psychology, veterinary sciences and zoology, as well as in animal sanctuaries, biomedical research facilities, museums and zoos...
, and animal intelligence. He teaches animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
law at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, Vermont Law School
Vermont Law School
Vermont Law School is a private, American Bar Association accredited law school located in South Royalton, Vermont . The Law School has one of the United States' leading programs in environmental law, and the Law School is currently ranked #1 in Environmental Law by U.S...
, John Marshall Law School
John Marshall Law School
John Marshall Law School may refer to:*John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois*John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, Georgia*Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Cleveland, Ohio...
, Lewis & Clark Law School
Lewis & Clark Law School
Lewis and Clark Law School is a private American law school located in Portland, Oregon. In the last ten years, L&C's Environmental Law program has been the highest-rated in the United States eight times....
, and Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
School of Veterinary Medicine. He is a former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund
Animal Legal Defense Fund
The Animal Legal Defense Fund is an American non-profit law organization that aims to protect the rights and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. It was founded in 1979 by attorneys active in shaping the emerging field of animal law. The ALDF has campaigned for stronger...
, and founder and president of the Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights
Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights
The Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights is an American animal rights nonprofit organization that seeks to extend the fundamental common law rights of liberty and equality to such non-human animals as apes, cetaceans, elephants, parrots, and others through litigation and public education...
. The Yale Law Journal
Yale Law Journal
The Yale Law Journal is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School...
has called him "one of the pistons of the animal rights movement."
Wise is the author of An American Trilogy
An American Trilogy (book)
An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery, and Dominion on the Banks of the Cape Fear River is a 2009 is a non-fiction work by Steven M. Wise about the pig industry in North Carolina...
(2009), in which he tells the story of how a piece of land in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was first the home of Native Americans until they were driven into near-extinction, then a slave plantation, and finally the site of factory hog farm
Intensive pig farming
Intensive piggeries are a type of factory farm ' specialized in the raising of domestic pigs up to slaughter weight...
s and the world's largest slaughterhouse. Though the Heavens May Fall (2005), recounts the 1772 trial in England of James Somersett, a black man rescued from a ship heading for the West Indies slave markets, which gave impetus to the movement to abolish slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in Britain and the United States (see Somersett's Case
Somersett's Case
R v Knowles, ex parte Somersett 20 State Tr 1 is a famous judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772 which held that slavery was unsupported by law in England and Wales...
). Drawing the Line (2002), which describes the relative intelligence of animals and human beings. And Rattling the Cage (2000), in which he argues that certain basic legal rights should be extended to chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s and bonobo
Bonobo
The bonobo , Pan paniscus, previously called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee, is a great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan. The other species in genus Pan is Pan troglodytes, or the common chimpanzee...
s.
Background
Wise was awarded his J.DJuris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
in 1976, and became a personal injury lawyer. He was inspired to move into the area of animal rights after reading Peter Singer
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...
's Animal Liberation (1975), often referred to as the bible of the animal liberation movement
Animal liberation movement
The animal-liberation movement, sometimes called the animal-rights movement, animal personhood, or animal-advocacy movement, is a social movement which seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, an end to the status of animals as property, and...
. A practicing animal protection attorney, he is president of the nonprofit Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights, Inc., where he directs its Nonhuman Rights Project, the purpose of which is to obtain basic common law rights for at least some nonhuman animals. He lives in Coral Springs, Florida.
Animal personhood
Wise's position on animal rights is that some animals, particularly primatePrimate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
s, meet the criteria of legal personhood, and should therefore be awarded certain rights and protections. His criteria for personhood are that the animal must be able to desire things, to act in an intentional manner to acquire those things, and must have a sense of self i.e. the animals must know that s/he exists. Wise argues that chimpanzees, bonobos, elephants, parrots, dolphins, orangutans, and gorillas meet these criteria.
Wise argues that these animals should have legal personhood bestowed upon them to protect them from "serious infringements upon their bodily integrity and bodily liberty." Without personhood in law, he writes, one is "invisible to civil law" and "might as well be dead."
He writes in "The Problem with Being a Thing" in Rattling the Cage:
In Rattling the Cage, Wise offers examples of primates who he believes have suffered unjustifiably. He writes about Jerom, a chimpanzee who lived alone in a small cage in the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, with no access to sunlight, after being infected with one strain of HIV when he was three, another at the age of four, and a third at the age of five, before dying in 1996 at the age of 14.
Wise also tells the story of Lucy Temerlin
Lucy Temerlin
Lucy Temerlin was a chimpanzee owned by the Institute for Primate Studies in Oklahoma, and raised by Maurice K. Temerlin, Ph.D., a psychotherapist and professor at the University of Oklahoma and his wife, Jane W...
, a six-year-old chimpanzee who learned American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
from Roger Fouts, the primatologist, and was raised by Maurice K. Temerlin and Temerlin Mcclain. Fouts would arrive at Lucy's home at 8:30 every morning, when Lucy would greet him with a hug, go to the stove, take the kettle, fill it with water from the sink, find two cups and tea bags from the cupboard, and brew and serve the tea. When she was 12, the Temerlins were no longer able to care for her. She was sent to a chimpanzee rehabilitation center in Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, then flown to Gambia, where she was shot and skinned by a poacher, and her feet and hands hacked off for sale as trophies.
Seminars
Wise has been profiled in Who's Who in the World (since 2005), Who's Who in America (since 2003), Who's Who in American Law (since 2005), and Who’s Who in Finance and Business (since 2007). Heis a frequent guest on a wide variety of television and radio shows throughout Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and North America, including National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," Morning Edition," "Weekend Edition," "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," and "The Connection," NBC Nightly News, CBS Nightly News, Fox TV News, Court TV, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN News and "Crossfire," "Voice of America," and the BBC's "Start the Week' with Jeremy Paxman" and "Outlook." He speaks frequently on topics related to animal rights law at law schools, legal conferences, and universities throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and Africa, including Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, University of Vienna Law School, Austria, University of Basel, Switzerland, Lincoln's Inn, London, University of New South Wales Law School, Australia, University of Woolongong Law School, Australia, University of Melbourne Law School, Australia, Monash University Law School, Australia, University of Auckland Law School, New Zealand, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Federal University, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, and the Office for Animal Rights, Florence, Italy.
He has taught "Animal Rights Law" or "Animal Rights Jurisprudence" at the Harvard, Vermont, Lewis and Clark, University of Miami, St. Thomas, and John Marshall Law Schools.
Works
BooksWise has written four books. While reviewing "An American trilogy," the July/August, 2009 issue of VegNews called him the "John Grisham of the animal rights movement"
- Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA, 2000 (called a "seminal work" by the Boston Globe (March 3, 2005); Time magazine observed "(o)nce the domain of activists, animal law has steadily gained respect among law schools and legal scholars since 2000, when ... Rattling the Cage provided an academic argument for granting legal rights to animals" (December 13, 2004)) .
- Drawing the Line: Science and the Case for Animal Rights, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, MA, 2002.
- Though the Heavens May Fall, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005(cover review for Sunday New York Times Book Review, January 9, 2005).
- An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery and Dominion Along the Banks of the Cape Fear River, Da Capo Press, 2009.
Book Chapters
- "Animal law and animal sacrifice: Analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Santaria animal sacrifice in Hialeah," in A Communion Of Subjects – Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics (Paul Waldau and Kimberly Patton, eds. Columbia University Press 2006)
- "Entitling Nonhuman Animals to Fundamental Legal Rights on the Basis of Practical Autonomy," in Animals, Ethics, and Trade (Earthscan 2006)
- "Resources on Animals and the Law," in Animals Are the Issue - Library Resources on Animal Issues (John M. Kistler, ed., Haworth Press 2004)
- "Animal Rights, One Step at a Time,"in Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (Cass Sunstein and Martha Nussbaum, eds., Oxford University Press 2004)
- "Untitled," The State of the Animals II (Humane Society of the United States, 2003)
- "A Great Shout - Breaking the Barriers to Legal Rights for Great Apes," in Great Apes and Humans - The Ethics of Coexistence (Smithsonian Press, 2001), reprinted in Animal Law (Clare Palmer, ed. The International Library on Rights, Ashgate Publishing, forthcoming 2008), and in The Animal Ethics Reader (Susan J. Armstrong and Richard G. Boltzler, eds. Routledge 2003)
Law Review Articles
- "Commentary, An Argument for the Basic Legal Rights of Farmed Animals," 106 Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions
http://www.michiganlawreview.org/firstimpressions/vol106/wise.pdf. (2008)
- “Arguments in favour of basic legal rights for nonhumans,” Reform (Australian Law Reform Commission March, 2008)
- "The entitlement of chimpanzees to the common law writs of habeas corpus and de homine replegiando to challenge their legal thinghood," 37(2) Golden Gate Law Review 219 (2007)
- "Rattling the Cage Defended," 43 Boston College Law Review 623 (2002)
- "Legal status of nonhuman animals," 8 Animal Law 1 (2002)(symposium participant)
- "Animal Thing to Animal Person - Thoughts on Time, Place, and Theories," 5 Animal Law 59 (1999)
- "Hardly a Revolution - The Eligibility of Nonhuman Animals for Dignity-Rights in a Liberal Democracy," 22 Vermont Law Review 793(1998)
- "Recovery of Common Law Damages of Emotional Distress and Loss of Society for the Wrongful Deaths of Companion Animals," 4 Animal Law 33 (1998)
- Dr. Jane Goodall and Steven M. Wise, "Why Chimpanzees are Entitled to Fundamental Legal Rights," Joint Presentation to Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association, August 2, 1996, reprinted in 3 Animal Law 61 (1997)
- “Legal Rights for Nonhuman Animals: The Case for Chimpanzees and Bonobos," 2 Animal Law 179 (1996).
- “The Legal Thinghood of Nonhuman Animals,” 23(2) Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 471 (1996), reprinted in 3 Private Law Review (2003) and 4 Private Law Review (2004)(China University of Politics and Law Publishing)
- "How Nonhuman Animals Became Trapped in a Nonexistent Universe,” 1 Animal Law 15 (1995)
- "Scientific experimental conduct is not protected by the First Amendment," 6(4) Boston Bar Journal 20 (Sept./ Oct., 1992)
- “Of Farm Animals and Justice,” 3 Pace Environmental Law Review 191 (1986)
Encyclopedia articles
- "Animal Rights," Encyclopædia Britannica,http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-257090/animal-rights
- "Should it be legal to use nonhumans in genetic research?" Encyclopedia of the Human Genome (2003) and Encyclopedia of the Life Sciences (2006)
See also
- Chimpanzee and Human Communication InstituteChimpanzee and Human Communication InstituteThe Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute is located on the campus of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. CHCI is a sanctuary for three chimpanzees who have learned to communicate with humans and each other using American Sign Language. CHCI's co-directors are Roger...
- Stephen R.L. Clark
- Steven BestSteven BestSteven Best is an American animal rights activist, author, talk-show host, and associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso...
- Gary Francione
- Ingrid NewkirkIngrid NewkirkIngrid Newkirk is a British-born animal rights activist and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , the world's largest animal rights organization...
- Tom ReganTom ReganTom Regan is an American philosopher who specializes in animal rights theory. He is professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, where he taught from 1967 until his retirement in 2001....
- Richard D. RyderRichard D. RyderRichard Hood Jack Dudley Ryder is a British psychologist. He is a former Mellon Professor at Tulane University, New Orleans. He served as chairman of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Council from 1977 to 1979, and is a past president of Britain's Liberal Democrat Animal...
- Peter SingerPeter SingerPeter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...
- WashoeWashoe (chimpanzee)Washoe was a chimpanzee who was the first non-human to learn to communicate using American Sign Language, as part of a research experiment on animal language acquisition....
Further reading
- Capone, Lisa. "Wise Counsel for Animals", (profile of Wise), Animals, March 2000, p. 30.
- Dougherty, Robin. "The Line That Divides Human from Animal" (interview with Wise), 'Boston Globe, May 26, 2002.
- Kleiner, Kurt. "Review of Drawing the Line," Salon, September 3, 2002.
- Herbert, Roy. New Scientist, September 7, 2002, Roy Herbert, review of Drawing the Line: Science and the Case for Animal Rights, p. 54.
- Marcus, Erik. "Interview with Steven Wise," Vegan, December 6, 2002.
- Masson, Jeffrey. Observer (London, England), June 11, 2000, review of Rattling the Cage, p. 13.
- Mehren, Elizabeth. "Lawyer, Harvard Instructor Is Witness for the Defense of Animals," Los Angeles Times, May 24, 2000, p. A16.
- Neil, Martha. "Animal Rights Professor Is Very Pro Bonobo," Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, August 13, 1999, p. 3.
- Rosen, Ambuja. "All Clients Great and Small: How Strong Are Your Animal Instincts? Take a Lesson from Four Leading Animal-Rights Lawyers," Student Lawyer, December 1998, pp. 28–33.
- Schensul, Jill. "Interview with Steven Wise," Animal News Center, December 6, 2002.
- Wu, F. H. Choice, October 2001, review of Rattling the Cage, p. 382.
- "Review of Rattling the Cage," January Magazine, September 2, 2002.
- Animal Rights Agenda, July-August, 2002, "A New Order in the Court" (interview with Wise), pp. 42–43.
- Animal Welfare Institute Quarterly, winter 2001, review of Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals.
- Daytona Beach News-Journal, June 11, 2002, "Activist Says Some Animals Deserve Legal Rights."
- Nature, August 17, 2000, review of Rattling the Cage, pp. 675–676.
- Publishers Weekly, May 20, 2002, review of Drawing the Line, p. 59.
- Animal-Rights Lawyers," Student Lawyer, December 1998, pp. 28-33.
- Time, March 13, 2000, "Standing Up for Rover: A Harvard Lawyer Is a Champion of Humane — Not Just Human — Rights, " p. 6.
- Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2002, "The Law of the Jungle," p. A18.
- Washington Post, June 5, 2002, "Beastly Behavior? A Law Professor Says It's Time to Extend Basic Rights to the Animal Kingdom, " pp. C1-C2.