![]() “I have had a huge shift in my thinking,” says Hegedus. She and Pennebaker hardly ever eat meat anymore. In keeping with her reputation for deep immersion in her subject matter, Hegedus found herself changed by three years of shooting on the front-line of the animal rights movement. Whether people buy into Steven’s argument (or not), there are deep feelings about animals on both sides.” Animals are not just the domain of liberals. “Al Franken always said that comedy crosses political boundaries,” says Hegedus. Unlocking the Cage fits very well into this trend. Not only has technology democratized the process of telling true stories, but recent films like The Cove and Blackfish have provoked new and much-needed conversations around nonhuman animals. The lawsuits are bolstered by extensive affidavits from the world’s leading primatologists.ĭocumentary filmmaking is experiencing its own watershed moment right now. Wise’s claim for chimpanzee personhood is buttressed by more than a half-century of scientific findings: that chimps are self-aware, that they dwell on the past and anticipate the future, that they understand that their thoughts and desires are different from those of others, that they grieve for their dead, engage in politics and understand the concepts of fairness, retribution and reconciliation (and perhaps even possess something resembling a spiritual side). Fundamental to habeas corpus, and yet usually overlooked as a matter of significance, is this idea of the captive being a “person.” But if Wise can convince a judge that one of the chimpanzees he represents possesses the essential characteristics of personhood, that judge could issue the writ. When a writ is issued by a judge, the captive “person” must be presented in court and their custodian must justify their incarceration. Habeas corpus (Latin for “You may have the body”) is enshrined as a method of safeguarding against unlawful imprisonment. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But it nevertheless seems appropriate to ask: When will the next RSPCA come along? Where is our modern-day Jane Goodall, our contemporary Peter Singer (with respect to both, who are still very much alive)? ![]() Or perhaps our age is defined by an endless susceptibility to such stimuli, with every historical turning point so rapidly overshadowed by the next that we simply lose sight of how far we’ve come. Perhaps we no longer live in an age when the populace is susceptible to such mass inspiration. And when Peter Singer published Animal Liberation in 1977, he electrified a generation and spurred untold numbers of people to organize and take action. When Jane Goodall reported in the 1960s that chimpanzees in Tanzania were using tools, she revolutionized the way we think about our place in the animal kingdom. In 1824, with the founding of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), the world had its first animal welfare charity and a robust model for others to follow. Nonetheless, it’s also been many decades since we’ve experienced a truly galvanizing moment in the non-human animal welfare movement, a watershed event after which nothing will be the same. ![]()
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