THE WIKIPROJECT ON ANIMAL RIGHTS

[Guest guest]

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Animal_rights*

*The aim of the project is to educate readers and editors about the concept

of animal rights, the movement, and its issues. The word " educate " is vital.

We should seek to provide intelligent, nuanced, three-dimensional coverage

of the topic, not propaganda or simplistic knee-jerk responses, whether pro

or anti.*

 

*Animal rights is no longer an issue that's confined to the fringes. The

idea of extending legal **personhood*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personhood>

* to animals is supported by an increasing number of legal scholars,

including **Alan Dershowitz* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dershowitz>*and

**Laurence Tribe* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Tribe>* of **Harvard

Law School* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Law_School>*.

**[1]*<http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/reporter/oct03/animalrights.htm>

* At the time of writing, 39 out of 180 United States law schools teach

specialist animal rights courses. The Swiss and German constitutions have

been changed to reflect the status of animals as beings in their own right,

rather than property. There is increasing support among academics for the

idea of awarding very basic rights to other members of the **Great

Ape*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ape>

* family.*

 

*This is therefore an exciting and challenging time to be exploring the

issue. It's exciting for supporters of the movement, because legal

breakthroughs may be on the horizon. It's challenging for those who rely on

the use of animals in research or in industry. Philosophically, it's a

revolutionary period, in which the status of human beings as the only

possessors of souls, or as sitting at the moral pinnacle of the natural

world, may face serious challenge for the first time in recorded history.*

 

*For all these reasons, animal rights is an issue that provokes strong

feelings. The aim of this project is to ensure that Wikipedia's coverage is

not informed by those strong feelings, but by disinterested, intelligent, **

neutral* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:NPOV>*, and

**reliable*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:V>

* research.*