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5 Animal L. 61 (1999)
Animal Thing to Animal Person--Thoughts on Time, Place, and Theories

handle is hein.journals/anim5 and id is 73 raw text is: ANIMAL THING TO ANIMAL PERSON-THOUGHTS ON TIME, PLACE, AND THEORIES By STEVEN M. WISE* The rule that animals are property, and do not merit legal rights, is in- grained in the law of English-speaking countries. Challenges to this rule must be brought in strategic, thoughtfu, sensitive, sophisticated, and coordi- nated ways. This essay offers seven related strategic considerations for any- one who wishes to battle the animals as property rule. I. INTRODUCTMON For centuries, a Great Legal Wall has divided humans from every other species of animal in the West' On one side, every human is a person with legal rights; on the other, every non-human is a thing with no legal rights. Every animal rights lawyer knows that this barrier must be breached. Serious attempts are beginning around the world. Recently, the governing coalition of the German Social Democrat and Green Parties, along with the opposition Free Democracy and East German Communist Parties, introduced an amendment to the German constitution that would give non-human animals the legal rights to be respected as fellow crea- tures and protected from avoidable pain.2 In New Zealand, proponents of an Animal Welfare Bill are seeking to obtain from the New Zealand * President, Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights, Inc., Boston, Mass.; Presi- dent, Wise & Slater-Wise, P.C., Boston, Mass.; teaches Animal Rights Lawi' at Harvard Law School (Lecturer in Law, 2000), Vermont Law School (adjunct professor since 1990), and John Marshall School of Law (adjunct professor since 1999); author of Rxrrw'. THE CAoE- TowARD LE AL RIGHTS FOR ANuiLAs (forthcoming 2000). 1 See generally Steven . Wise, The Legal Th7inghood of Non-human Animals, 23 B.C. ENvrv. AFF. L R v. 471 (1996); Steven M. Wise, How Non-human Animals Were Trapped in a Nonexistent Universe, 1 ANziAI. L 15 (1995). 2 Robert Koenig, European Researchers Grapple with Animal Rights, 284 ScwmcE 1604, 1604 (June 4, 1999); Quirin Schiermeier, German Science Fights Animal Rights Bill, 397 NATuRE 461 (1999).

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