“The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity” to show at Climate Week NYC on Sept. 24th, Exploring Interfaith Environmentalism and the Animal Rights Movement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 12, 2025
Contacts:
Grant Wilson: gwilson@earthlaw.org
Ciara Shea: cshea@earthlaw.org
New York, NY, September 24, 2025 – Earth Law Center (ELC) will host a live showing of the 1,000-year-old story “The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity” at Five Angels Theater in Manhattan. The play, which follows a group of animals who take humans to court for their poor treatment, offers an artistic window onto the work of ELC and the broader Rights of Nature movement in ingraining the rights of animals and other natural entities into law.
Although the roots of “The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity” trace to India, Muslim scholars of a Sufi order in Iraq first wrote the story in the 10th century CE. Later, in the 14th century, the Christian king of Anjou ordered Rabbi Kalonymus ben Kalonymus to translate the Arabic version into Hebrew and Latin, and it has long been an important tale in Muslim and Jewish communities. Rabbi Anson Laytner and Rabbi Dan Bridge translated and adapted the story from Hebrew into English back in 2005, and Laytner adapted it for the theater in 2024.
Laytner and Bridge’s translation has been hailed across religious traditions. The Islamic philosopher Seyd Hossein Nassar called it a “fascinating story of enduring spiritual worth and great current significance.” It has already made its way to schools in England, music festivals in Singapore, and more. Laytner also made it the focus of his recent novel, “The Forgotten Commandment.”
Although “The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity” is an ancient tale, its themes are especially valuable in light of the current ecological crisis, and speak to the ways in which legal systems can be used to enact rights for animals and ecosystems. In the play, humans move to an island previously inhabited only by animals and begin to exploit the animals for their own gain. Upset by their exploitation, the animals appeal to the King of the Jinn, who oversees a trial between the humans and animals. The trial itself is the focus of the play, as animals lament the human disregard for animal life, proclaiming, “There we are in the marketplace, being chopped up and sold, and that’s us! That’s our bodies, that’s our babies!” On the other side, some of the play’s humans argue that animals are rightless entities ripe for unfettered human use, while other humans, who could be described as environmentalists, align with the animals’ arguments.
Rabbi Anson Laytner
ELC Executive Director Grant Wilson
Rabbi Laytner will speak as part of an interfaith panel after the theatrical reading during Climate Week. He celebrates the play’s interfaith approach to environmentalism, saying, “The message of this tale is shockingly contemporary, but equally surprising is its interfaith history which shows that the Abrahamic faiths all have strong teachings about how to care for other living things.
Speaking to the conflict between animal rights and human exploitation, Grant Wilson, Executive Director of Earth Law Center (ELC), describes the relevance of “The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity” to modern ecocentrism: “This ancient fable, over a thousand years old, mirrors the stark injustices that animals still face today: being treated as mere property and inferior to humans, both culturally and legally, with no formal rights of their own. In truth, humans are merely one small element in the vast, interconnected web of life. It’s time for our society and laws to recognize this reality.”
ELC, which is sponsoring this theatrical reading of “The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity,” has played a notable role in enshrining the Rights of Nature and animal rights across the globe. Focused particularly on animal rights, along with its partner organization, The Leatherback Project, ELC urged the creation of a national law in Panama protecting sea turtles, which was passed in 2023. In the U.S., ELC and partners have advocated for the rights of rivers, forests, and Southern Resident Orcas, amongst others. There are countless related campaigns globally.
ELC’s work is part of a broader global movement to advance the Rights of Nature and the rights of specific animals. In 2008, Ecuador was the first country to add a Rights of Nature amendment to its constitution, and since then, Bolivia, Panama, Spain, Uganda, and others have also enshrined the Rights of Nature into national laws. “The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity” captures the historical precedent for the broader Rights of Nature and animal rights movements.
The play “mirrors the efforts of advocates across the world to recognize and defend the rights of ecosystems and species based on the reality that all life has a right to exist,” says Wilson. “Many of the arguments that the animals make in the play are the same ones made by ‘Earth lawyers’ in the courts today as they seek to create legal frameworks that represent all life, not only humans.”
“The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity” will be produced by Liv Boren and Chris Dooly of Jack & Grace Productions and will be performed on September 24th at Climate Week NYC. Liv and Chris were drawn to this project because, “at a time when the natural world is under threat, there is power and wisdom in the tales of our past. J&G is thrilled to bring this show to life with Earth Law Center at Climate Week NYC, where we have the potential to reach young minds and foster real, long-lasting change.”
For tickets, please follow this link.
Actors Include:
Interfath panel:
Anson Laytner, speaking on Judaism
Claudio Carvalhaes, speaking on Christianity
Zehra Abbas, EcoMuslim Alliance
Isra Hirsi, Panel Moderator
Introduction from:
Grant Wilson, Executive Director, Earth Law Center
