Produced by: Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker for 'The New York Times Videos'
The NhRP is unlike any other organization in the world. Why? Because we’re the only group fighting for actual LEGAL rights for members of species other than our own. The way our law currently categorizes animals is wrong; it’s time for that to change.
The NhRP was founded in 2007 by attorney Steven M. Wise, and is made up of dozens of smart, committed, and hard-working people from many backgrounds.
We have come together for one clear purpose: to break through the legal wall that separates humans from nonhumans, thereby gaining legal “personhood” for nonhuman animals, beginning with some of the most intelligent animals on earth, like chimpanzees, elephants and dolphins.
These are complex animals who have deep emotions, understand each others’ minds, live in complicated societies, transmit culture, use sophisticated communication, solve difficult problems, and even mourn the loss of their loved ones. Just like humans.
Only the law can stop it. Yet the law affords them no rights, allowing humans to do with them whatever we want.
This is illogical, unnatural and unethical.
The Nonhuman Rights Project is preparing to litigate the first groundbreaking legal cases intended to knock down the wall that separates humans from nonhumans.
Once this wall is breached, the first nonhuman animals on earth will gain legal “personhood” and finally get their day in court — a day they so clearly deserve."
