Animal Law Podcast #32: The Case of the Enslaved Elephants

On this episode of the Animal Law Podcast,  Mariann will be speaking once again with Steven Wise, who heads up the Nonhuman Rights Project, and who was last on the podcast on Episodes 1 and 2 to tell us about the litigation brought in New York State trying to free several chimpanzees living in New York.

Today, Steve will be updating us about that case, but primarily he’ll be talking about the NHRP’s latest habeas corpus petition, Matter of Nonhuman Rights Project o.b.o. Beulah, Minnie and Karen v R.W. Commerford & Sons. This matter, brought in Connecticut on behalf of three elephants, has recently been rejected by a Connecticut court in a rather peculiar decision, which pointed out, among other things, that the elephants’ owners were in a better position to litigate on their behalf than the Nonhuman Rights Project. Pretty strange, right?

Steve is, of course, the founder and president of the NhRP. He has practiced and taught animal protection law for 30 years throughout the US and 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.

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