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Steven M. Wise

Born

in The United States

December 19, 1950

Died

February 15, 2024

Website

http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/

Twitter

Steven_M_Wise

Genre

Nonfiction, History, Law

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Steven M. Wise was an American legal scholar who specialized in animal protection issues, primatology, and animal intelligence. He has taught animal rights law at Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, John Marshall Law School, Lewis & Clark Law School, and Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. He is a former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project. The Yale Law Journal has called him "one of the pistons of the animal rights movement."

Wise is the author of An American Trilogy (2009), in which he tells the story of how a piece of land in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was first the home of Native Americans until they were driven into near-extinction, then a slave plantation, Steven M. Wise was an American legal scholar who specialized in animal protection issues, primatology, and animal intelligence. He has taught animal rights law at Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, John Marshall Law School, Lewis & Clark Law School, and Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. He is a former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project. The Yale Law Journal has called him "one of the pistons of the animal rights movement."

Wise is the author of An American Trilogy (2009), in which he tells the story of how a piece of land in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was first the home of Native Americans until they were driven into near-extinction, then a slave plantation, and finally the site of factory hog farms and the world's largest slaughterhouse. Though the Heavens May Fall (2005), recounts the 1772 trial in England of James Somersett, a black man rescued from a ship heading for the West Indies slave markets, which gave impetus to the movement to abolish slavery in Britain and the United States (see Somersett's Case). Drawing the Line (2002), which describes the relative intelligence of animals and human beings. And Rattling the Cage (2000), in which he argues that certain basic legal rights should be extended to chimpanzees and bonobos.

Wise received his undergraduate education at the College of William & Mary. While at William & Mary, Wise first became interested in politics through his involvement in the anti-Vietnam War movement. Wise was awarded his J.D from Boston University in 1976, and became a personal injury lawyer. He was inspired to move into the area of animal rights after reading Peter Singer's Animal Liberation (1975), often referred to as the bible of the animal liberation movement. A practicing animal protection attorney, he was president of the nonprofit Nonhuman Rights Project, where he directed its Nonhuman Rights Project, the purpose of which is to obtain basic common law rights for at least some nonhuman animals. He lived in Coral Springs, Florida.

Wise has taught “Animal Rights Jurisprudence” at the Vermont, Lewis and Clark, University of Miami, and St. Thomas Law Schools, and has taught “Animal Rights Law” at the Harvard Law School and John Marshall Law School. He was also working on a fifth book, which will be a memoir about the Nonhuman Rights Project.

He has authored numerous law review, encyclopedia, and popular articles. His work for the legal rights of nonhuman animals was highlighted on Dateline NBC and was the subject of the documentary, A Legal Person.

He regularly traveled the world lecturing on animal rights jurisprudence and the Nonhuman Rights Project, and was a frequent guest on television and radio discussing animal rights law and the Nonhuman Rights Project. ...more

628 posts
Steven M. Wise's Blog

Steven M. Wise isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

Neurocaptivity: The Harmful Neural Consequences of Captivity for Elephants

Bob Jacobs, Ph.D., is a renowned neuroscientist and comparative neuroanatomist whose research examines the structural impact of environment on the brain. A former professor of psychology at Colorado College and founder of its neuroscience major, Bob has spent nearly 40 years conducting brain research and has published 50 peer-reviewed papers. After years spent mapping the human cerebral cortex,

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Steven M. Wise’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 427 ratings · 59 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals by Steven M. Wise, Jane Goodall (Foreword) 4.11 avg rating — 167 ratings — published 2000 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Drawing the Line: Science and the Case for Animal Rights 4.13 avg rating — 100 ratings — published 2002 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thing: Inside the Struggle for Animal Personhood by Sam Machado, Cynthia Sousa Machado, Steven M. Wise 3.93 avg rating — 72 ratings — published 2020 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery 3.78 avg rating — 65 ratings — published 2005 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery, and Dominion on the Banks of the Cape Fear River 3.53 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2009 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Unlocking The Cage 3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2002	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Acquisition of Motor Behavior in Vertebrates (Bradford Books) by Timothy J. Ebner (Editor), Steven M. Wise (Editor), Timothy J. Ebner 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1996 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Classical Numerical Analysis: A Comprehensive Course (Cambridge Mathematical Textbooks) by Abner J. Salgado, Steven M. Wise 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Animal Ethics and Animal Law by Andrew Linzey (Editor), A. W. H. Bates (Contributor), Mariah Rayfield Beck (Contributor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Steven M. Wise (?)

“Some animal rights activists are demanding vegetarianism, even veganism now, or nothing. But since only 4 or 5 percent of Americans claim to be vegetarians, 'nothing' is the far more likely outcome. I ask these activists to weigh the horrors of Bladen County's industrial farms and the Tar Heel slaughterhouse against the consequences of doing nothing to alleviate the hour-to-hour sufferings of its victims. Is not a life lived off the factory farm and a death humanely inflicted superior to the terrible lives we know they lead and the horrible deaths we know they suffer in Bladen County today?”
― Steven Wise, An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery, and Dominion on the Banks of the Cape Fear River

tags: animal-rights, animal-welfare, animals, cafos, factory-farms, suffering, vegans, vegetarians

11 likes

“The historian William Cronon explains that packing plants

'distanced their customers most of all from the act of killing.... The more people became accustomed to the attractively cut, carefully wrapped, cunningly displayed packages that Swift had introduced to the trade, the more easily they could fail to remember that their purchase had once pulsed and breathed with a life much like their own.... As time went on, fewer of those who ate meat could say they had actually killed the animals themselves. In the packer's world, it was easy not to remember that eating meat was a moral act inextricably bound to killing. Such was the second nature that a corporate order had imposed on the American landscape. Forgetfulness was among the least noticed and most important of its by-products.”
― Steven Wise, An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery, and Dominion on the Banks of the Cape Fear River

2 likes

“Between 6 and 8 percent of pigs die before they are trucked from the factory farm to slaughter. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 123 million pigs were slaughtered in 2006. That means 7 to 10 million died on their own before we could kill them.”
― Steven Wise, An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery, and Dominion on the Banks of the Cape Fear River

tags: pigs

2 likes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The History Book ...: * SLAVE TRADE AND ABOLITION	102	633	Apr 11, 2026 11:07AM