The “rights we confer on others,” including animals, do indeed “define who we are as a society”
When I saw the news report this week about a court ruling involving an elephant residing in the Bronx Zoo, of which I have fond childhood memories, I just knew I had to weigh in.
There I go. I told myself I needed to stay focused on the story and steer clear of the plethora of puns strewn all about, and I’ve slipped already (although that’s understandable, since the case was on appeal).
But when a lawyer named Steven Wise sues to free an Asian elephant named Happy from her longtime Bronx Zoo digs by invoking habeas corpus (a legal remedy for unlawful detention), it can be really tough not to crack Wise about this plaintiff, not to say something about this being the habeas with the biggest corpus I’ve ever seen. To do otherwise would be to ignore the elephant in the room.
Before beginning to write, I thought it made sense to check out attorney Wise’s bona fides. Thinking he might be a big-firm litigator, I searched for Healthy, Wealthy and Wise, LLP. Nothing doing. Could he be a solo practitioner, perhaps with a practice limited to nonhuman clients? I checked an attorney’s directory for Steven Wise, PC — Pachyderm Counsel — but again, nothing.
Create a free account to keep reading.
