Can dogs be considered “persons” under the law ?

Outside the rural town of Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, about 2,000 dogs await their fate in small wire cages. They are confined at Ridglan Farms, a large-scale breeding operation that supplies beagles for research labs across the country. The current law treats the dogs as property of the company. We and others suggest that the conditions of their confinement have been so bad that their own legal rights should prompt their release. Ridglan Farms has come under increasing scrutiny for nearly a...