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from the publisher:
One of those rare books that can change the reader's view of our position in the world and within the animal kingdom, Drawing the Line: Science and the Case for Animal Rights is a landmark both in its scientific insight and in its challenge to the law. As Steven Wise continues his exploration of animal cognition along the evolutionary spectrum--from apes to dolphins, parrots, elephants, dogs, and even honeybees--he finds astonishing answers to the big question in animal rights today: Where do we draw the line? The law has firm criteria for personhood and Wise shows how certain non-human animals meet those criteria. Readers will be enthralled as they follow Wise's firsthand investigations of the work of the world's most famous animal experts: in Kenya with Cynthia Moss and the touchingly affectionate elephant families of Amboseli, in the mountains of Uganda with Richard Wrangham and the chimpanzees of the Kibale Forest, at MIT with Irene Pepperberg and her amazing and witty gray parrot, Alex, and in the California sanctuary where Penny Paterson has spent two decades learning about the skills and vivid personality of Koko the gorilla. In many cases, Wise was even able to sustain an extended conversation with these extraordinary creatures.
Steven Wise is the world's foremost expert on the legal rights of animals and has devoted his life to litigating, writing, and working on their behalf. No one with a shred of curiosity about animals, about rights, or about justice will want to miss this book.
Steven M. Wise, J.D., former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, has taught "Animal Rights Law" at the Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, and John Marshall Law. The leading advocate for non-human animals in the United States, Wise, in the words of the London Sunday Independent, "represents what the animal-rights lobby has hitherto lacked: a charismatic advocate with a detailed grasp of both science and law, and a reputation of indisputable credibility."
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