Rattling the Cage -

a book review by Dr. Connie Wright     4/01/01

At the risk of sounding like a crackpot, I want to tell you about a book I just read. I must admit that I picked up the book in the first place because I have some feelings about the topic already, which will make me seem dotty to some of you. The book is titled Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals, by Steven M. Wise.

     I just lost a lot of you, didn’t I? Legal rights for animals? Is she nuts?

     It is not as strange as it sounds, if you listen to the author’s argument.

     Everyone knows that chimpanzees and their smaller relatives, bonobos, are used in medical research. These very endangered animals are generally caged in small pens in bleak labs. For animals as highly developed as these, this is a lot like being in prison. Many of these apes are used as Jerom was. Jerom was a chimpanzee in a lab in the United States. He was injected with 3 strains of HIV. He was caged in a pen not much larger than a closet for 11 ½ years before he finally died. He was not yet 14 years old. Some of the chimps and bonobos used in these labs have previously been used in language experiments, so they can and do ask to be released from their prisons- but no one listens.

    Wise, a lawyer who is an expert on animal protection law, makes a very logical and compelling case for legal rights for chimps and bonobos. He does not suggest that they be given the same level of rights that most adult humans enjoy- just as people in vegetative states, who are not aware enough to have autonomy, have more limited rights.

     The foundations of our perception and our legal treatment of animals as property date back to the days of Plato, Aristotle and Socrates.  It was over 2000 years ago that the concept began that life on Earth forms a ladder. On the lowest rungs of the ladder were the “lesser” creatures, and on each succeeding rung the creatures had better souls and were more perfect. At the highest rung, just below the divine being(s), was man. Dwellers of lower rungs were designed to serve those on higher rungs. This sounds pretty good, right? At the time, however, the highest dwellers did not  include women, children or slaves. And yet, this concept is still the basis for the modern law that designates animals as property. At least women, children and slaves have achieved recognition in the courts as persons- but not until recently.

     Wise explains what qualifies people to be recognized as legal persons and not things. We have autonomy and are conscious. And, as Wise amply documents, there is really no legitimate doubt that chimps and bonobos are also conscious and have autonomy. So if they meet these standards, why are they still legal things ? Why do they not have the right to not be imprisoned and vivisected?

     Maybe because we are still arrogant enough to think that efforts to solve our health problems justify torturing other conscious, self-aware beings. Maybe because our religion makes us feel that it’s OK with God. Maybe because we are just too weak and self-centered to do the right thing. Maybe it is all of these reasons and more. But until we do right this wrong, there will be more beings imprisoned and tortured. Beings, taught to communicate by their captors, asking for the key to their prison door.