Steven M. Wise, J.D., former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund and founder of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), died on February 15, 2024, at the age of 73. Wise was a trailblazer in the fight for legal rights for animals. In his book Rattling the Cage, Wise persuasively argued that justice entitles chimpanzees and bonobos to legal personhood and to the fundamental legal rights of bodily integrity and bodily liberty. Wise taught Animal Rights Law at Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, John Marshall Law School, and Lewis & Clark Law School.
Martin Rowe, Executive Director of the Culture and Animals Foundation remembers Steven Wise and his contributions to the animal rights movement here.
