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A photo of two elephants nuzzling in the wilds of Africa [[link removed]]
Hi John! As you might know, May is an important month in the history of the Nonhuman Rights Project and the animal rights movement.
One year ago today, in a hearing for Happy the elephant covered by media around the world, New York’s highest court heard arguments in support of animal rights for the first time. As acclaimed historian Jill Lepore wrote, “No case like [Happy’s] has ever reached so high a court, anywhere in the world.”
In May of 2018, five years into our litigation challenging centuries of animals’ rightlessness, a judge on the same court issued an opinion in our chimpanzee rights cases, writing: “To treat a chimpanzee as if he or she had no right to liberty …is to regard the chimpanzee as entirely lacking independent worth, as a mere resource for human use, a thing the value of which consists exclusively in its usefulness to others. Instead, we should consider whether a chimpanzee is an individual with inherent value who has the right to be treated with respect.”
In May of 2015, chimpanzees Hercules and Leo became the first nonhuman beings to have habeas corpus hearings on the lawfulness of their imprisonment.
Each of these anniversaries made legal history for animals. Please register to join us on Thursday, May 25th at 11 a.m. Eastern time for a special Zoom conversation with NhRP Litigation Director Elizabeth Stein and NhRP Senior Staff Attorney Monica Miller about why these hearings and this opinion are so important and what they tell us about the battles ahead [[link removed]] .
Elizabeth, also known as Liddy, was the NhRP’s New York counsel in our legal fight to free Happy from the Bronx Zoo. Monica argued before New York’s highest court for Happy’s right to liberty and release to a sanctuary. Both have been with the NhRP since before we filed our first lawsuit a decade ago. Questions for Liddy and Monica are welcome!
This free Zoom event is limited to 100 people, so please register ASAP at this link [[link removed]] .
We look forward to seeing you there!
Thank you,
Lauren Choplin
Communications Director, the NhRP
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The NhRP is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation (Tax ID #: 04-3289466). It is solely through your donations that we can continue to work for the recognition and protection of fundamental rights for nonhuman animals.
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