University of Chicago Legal Forum Volume 2006 | Issue 1 Article 6 Animals Unmodified: Defining Animals/Defining Human Obligations to Animals Taimie L. Bryant
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf Recommended Citation Bryant, Taimie L. () "Animals Unmodified: Defining Animals/Defining Human Obligations to Animals," University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 2006: Iss. 1, Article 6. Available at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol2006/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Chicago Legal Forum by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Animals Unmodified: Defining Animals/Defining Human Obligations to Animals Taimie L. Bryant [Tihe definition of women in law and in life is not ours.... [W]omen [are not] measured by standards that reflect the experience and aspirations of women as such. We are not allowed to be women on our own terms. Catharine A. MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified 71 (Harvard 1987). INTRODUCTION Palos Verdes Peninsula, home to some of Los Angeles County's most affluent residents,1 is also home to some of the world's most beautiful birds, including the India blue peafowl. Although there are many species of peafowl, India blue peacocks, with their iridescent blue-green plumage, are the peacocks most Americans think of when peacocks are mentioned. The population of India blue peafowl on the Peninsula is particularly vibrant because, despite the presence of predators, the population is large enough to generate genetically robust and healthy individuals.2 Originally from India and resident on the Peninsula since the 1920s, peacocks, peahens, and peachicks are so numerous that they may constitute the largest wild flock of pure India blue peafowl in the United States.