Congratulations to Steven Wise and the Nonhuman Rights Project. This week they launched writs of habeas corpus on behalf of four chimpanzees in New York State, claiming that their captivity (in private homes, wildlife parks and university research labs) is a violation of the right not to be confined without cause. The NRP team have spent 6 years devising a strategy for shifting animals from the category of property to persons. And they believe that the common law, as traditionally interpreted in New York State, and as applied to chimpanzees, provides the best chance for doing so. Read more here.
Monbiot on Why He’s Vegan
George Monbiot, UK author and environmental columnist for The Guardian, has come to his senses again. Monbiot espoused veganism as the ethical environmental choice in the early noughts.Then, after reading Simon Fairlie’s argument supporting the consumption of meat from animals pastured on non-arable land, Monbiot back-tracked and lapsed into meat-eating ways. But recently, while doing the research for his book, Feral, Monbiot came to a new appreciation of the devastating ecological impact of pastured animals (most particularly, the sheep deserts created in uplands throughout the UK, and the flooding-induced crop and soil loss in the valleys below), and is committed to trying to find his way back to veganism. Way to go, George. Read more here.
The Double Trauma of Animal Experimentation
Although the animal research community does its best to conceal the violence it commits against animals, there is ample evidence of the psychological and physical trauma it results in. What is less discussed both within and outside the animal advocacy community, is the trauma many researchers experience as a result of perpetuating atrocities against animals. Continue Reading
Why Should We Care About Animals?
It is 6:15 am on a Saturday, and I am awake. The rising sun peeks through my window, nudging me from sleep. My room is stuffy. I am compelled to go outside.
The streets are empty. All is still and quiet…except it’s not. A rabbit bolts across the street, and I watch her bound away, her cottontail bobbing up and down.
Listen closer, and hear the squirrels chattering. Hear the birds cooing to one another, and the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves. The smell of fall. It is in small moments like these that I realize that I am never alone. Even at an hour where many humans would find it abominable to be conscious, I am surrounded by a community of creatures.
I am a second year law student here at Queen’s University. Every day is challenging for many reasons. Here is one that is very dear to my heart: Continue Reading
Queen's Animal Defence 