The Rise of Animal Law

The Rise of Animal Law: Some legal scholars have proposed strategies for advancing animal rights through steppingstone cases that erode the notion of animals as property and grant them some of the same protections people have. Others, drawing inspiration from the antislavery and civil rights movements, advocate a more direct effort to establish fundamental rights for animals -- at least for more cognitively sophisticated species such as great apes and cetaceans (see sidebar). No one is arguing that orangutans should be given the right to vote, but some legal scholars see no reason why apes shouldn't have rights similar to those of a child or a person in a coma. Read more