Man is a strange animal. He builds skyscrapers, flies to the moon and communicates in highly complex languages. From his admittedly impressive abilities, he derives the claim to be better than all other living beings and to have more rights. Also the right to mistreat other animals and the whole planet.
In times of climate change and species extinction, it would be time to finally say goodbye to this anthropocentric view. For example, it would be appropriate to also legally recognize what has long been scientifically proven: that not only people are individuals with different personalities who have feelings and empathize with others, but also many animals. The logical consequence of this knowledge would be to legally recognize animals as persons and to equip them with corresponding rights.
After a victory in court, other animals could also claim basic rights
This is exactly what American animal rights activists are trying to achieve in court, using the example of the Asian female elephant Happy. Happy has lived alone in the New York Bronx Zoo for decades – without contact with other elephants. If Happy were recognized as a legal person, she (or her human representative) could assert a right to freedom. It would be illegal to keep her in the zoo so that she could spend the last years of her life in a sanctuary with other elephants. For everything that is known about elephants, that would be a happy ending for Happy: Elephants are extremely social animals that live in families. They are in constant contact, touching or calling one another, and when a member of the family dies, they mourn.
A victory in the Happy case would also be a great success for animal welfare because the consequences would go far beyond the individual fate of the cow elephant. Other animals could then also demand fundamental rights in court: in addition to those to life and freedom, for example also not to be tortured or, in other words: to be treated appropriately for living beings.
Recognizing animals as legal entities could even give the impetus to finally fundamentally rethink the way humans deal with other living beings. Ultimately, humans would also benefit from this. How we deal with nature and its inhabitants is no longer a purely ethical question. Species extinction and climate change show that existence is at stake.