https://reasonstobecheerful.world/legal-personhood-rights-animals/
"Every pet owner knows that animals experience sorrow and joy. Research has
proven that even fish feel pain, and that species from orcas to bats
communicate extensively in complex languages. Chimpanzees can do math
calculations at the level of a five-year-old child. Not only mammals, but birds
and even ants care for injured members of their group. In 2005, Happy herself
was part of an Emory University experiment in which she seemed to recognize
herself in a mirror — a feat of self-awareness previously attributed only to
humans, dolphins and chimpanzees.
This is why, in a subtle but meaningful shift in syntax, Steven Wise calls the
Nonhuman Rights Project a “civil rights organization, not an animal rights
organization. We focus on legal personhood.”
The worldwide movement to seek basic rights for animals has been underway for
decades, but it is only recently that courts are beginning to confront the
fundamental question it raises: What rights does an animal have? In 2016,
Argentina became the first country to recognize the rights of a chimpanzee
named Cecilia, and as a result, the shy primate was relocated from her crowded
zoo to a nature reserve in Brazil. Switzerland legally recognized the reality
of animal consciousness in 2018, which led to a series of new laws regulating
puppy farming, restricting animal testing and outlawing boiling lobsters alive.
The U.K. is currently weighing a similar law. And in May 2020, the Islamabad
High Court issued a ruling about Kaavan, an elephant at the Marghazar Zoo,
stating “without hesitation that animals have legal rights.”
Expanding the definition of legal personhood is not at all unprecedented. The
U.S. has done it many times over, to include slaves, women, children, even
corporations. Steven Wise believes that “civil rights for nonhuman animals” are
the next leap forward in this ongoing expansion of human-level legal
protections."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
