Drawing the Line (Laurie Pycroft)
“I personally don’t support upgrading the class which great apes come into. I think they are definitely special animals but nonhuman animals nonetheless and as such shouldn’t be afforded the title of Person.“
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Using Sentience to Draw the Line
“Many people argue that sentience should be a criteria for rights…if I were the Chief Justice of the Universe I might agree. But the fact is that I can’t find an argument in Western law that supports such a thing.“
– Steve Wise
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Drawing the Line (Katherine Meyer)
“[I]f you start with gorillas and orangutans and chimpanzees… I think you’re going to get more people coming on board for the basic cause, which is to provide animals with more protections and rights under the law.“
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Drawing the Line (Roger Fouts)
“Maybe we can slip down that slippery slope so that the whole planet is respected and cared for rather than exploited.“
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Similar Minds Theory
“The idea that the animals that matter are the ones that have minds similar to ours, I think is dangerous…what it does is it reinforces that hierarchy.“
– Gary Francione
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Drawing the Line (Sarah Baeckler)
“I support the idea of changing the concept of all animals from property to something else.“
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Drawing the Line (Pedro Pozas)
“The first criteria would be those who are closest to human beings. And the great apes are closest to us from an evolutionary point of view and also the fact they come from the same common origin as we do.“
– Pedro Pozas Terrados
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Drawing the Line & Hierarchy
“By drawing the line I am reinforcing a dominance hierarchy. I am a lawyer, I’m not a philosopher…I want to operate within the legal system. The legal system that we have now is thoroughgoingly speciesist. So I can either make a thoroughgoingly speciesist argument or I can lose. “
– Steve Wise
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Basic Rights for Nonhuman Animals
”Sometimes people think that when I talk about getting basic legal rights for nonhuman animals, I’m talking about giving nonhuman animals human rights. But I’m really not, I’m just talking about giving basic rights to them the way we’ve given basic rights to humans.”
Steve Wise
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How to Effect Change
“I think both avenues, both trying to change the legal status of primates from property to persons as well as using the existing laws… can be used, most importantly I think, to raise the consciousness of the public, which is really what’s going to force the issue over time.” – Katherine Meyer
