Unlocking the Cage - The Fight for Legal Rights for Animals with Steve Wise

Join us 4pm PT/7pm ET Thursday March 15th on OMTimes Radio, for What is Going Om when Sandie's guest will be  Animal Rights Lawyer, Steven Wise 

“In December 2013, Animal rights 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.  He filed the first-ever lawsuits demanding personhood rights for animals, on behalf of four captive chimpanzees in New York State.” So wrote the director of the Movie, Unlocking the Cage, shown on HBO earlier this year, which covered Steven Wise‘s first lawsuit in his groundbreaking crusade, where he takes on the role of defender for captive chimpanzees who have suffered a number of traumas.

“They used to bark at me when I walked in the courtroom,” Steven Wise says in the movie.  He wasn’t joking.  The Founder and President of the NonHuman Rights Project (NhRP), of which Jane Goodall is a board member, Steven Wise’s lawsuits have brought animal personhood to the forefront of the conversation surrounding our society’s relationship with animals. So, why shouldn’t animals be protected from abuse in all the same ways that humans are? 

Steven Wise has spent decades fighting to ensure the well-being and humane treatment of all animals. His lawsuits, and the movie Unlocking the Cage, herald a monumental shift in our culture as the public and judicial system show increasing receptiveness to his impassioned arguments. If successful, Stephen Wise and his team could forever alter how animals – in and out of captivity - are regarded and treated.  

Join Sandie and Steven Wise this week as they discuss:   

* Why animals need legal personhood for their own safety

·     * Tommy and Kiko – the chimpanzee stories behind the headlines
* Why the distinction of “persons,” not “people,” is important
* If the courts see corporations as humans, why not chimps?
* Why recognition of nonhuman rights is the best and most lasting way to change nonhuman animals’ lives for the better
* The mutually reinforcing relationship between nonhuman rights and human rights
And more

STEVEN M. WISE began his mission to gain rights for nonhuman animals in 1985. 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 four decades.  Professor Wise taught the first class in “Animal Rights Law” at the Harvard Law School and is currently teaching “Animal Rights Jurisprudence” at the Lewis and Clark Law School and Vermont Law School. He is the author of four books: Rattling the Cage – Toward Legal Rights for Animals; Drawing the Line – Science and the Case for Animal Rights; Though the Heavens May Fall – The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery; and An American Trilogy – Death, Slavery, and Dominion Along the Banks of the Cape Fear River. His TED Talk from the TED2015 Conference in Vancouver, Canada was released in May of 2015, and has over one million views.

Join us at 4:00PM-PT/7PM-ET on Thursday by clicking the link below:

http://omtimes.com/iom/2018/03/unlocking-cage-steven-wise/