Steven Wise has represented dogs sentenced to death and disputed the ownership of dolphins by the American Navy. Photo / Dean Purcell

Steven Wise has represented dogs sentenced to death and disputed the ownership of dolphins by the American Navy. Photo / Dean Purcell

Celebrity animal rights lawyer Steven Wise usually steers clear of zoos, which is why we take him to the one in Auckland.

On the way to see Janie, the last tea party chimp, I explain her performances were a long time ago and the zoo is quite different today. Wise is concerned because chimps are complex and social animals and Janie is now on her own.

"The whole idea there'd be a single chimpanzee is awful to think about. It's like being in a solitary confinement for a human," he says.

Wise is interested in seeing Janie because he plans to go to court in an attempt to get fundamental human rights for chimpanzees.

He's deadly serious. He just hasn't decided on the jurisdiction and he needs to find an appropriate chimp.

Janie is nowhere to be seen in her cage. This is good, says Wise. It means she has some privacy. As we move on, he says enthusiastically "that's great" if he can't spot any of the animals in their enclosures.

Like the mothers and toddlers out in force this morning, Wise is mesmerised by the animals he does see.

He spends a long time at the orang-utan enclosure and almost has to be dragged away from the underwater sea lion viewing.

But while the kids are going "ooh", Wise is looking through different eyes. Orang-utans can do maths, he says: "Oh yeah, they can add and subtract."

And some seals have been taught language, which means they have the capacity for abstract thinking.

"They're pretty smart guys." It's obvious the lawyer is having a pleasant time and he admits he has taken his children to zoos - they, too, are drawn to cute animals - but justified the excursions by lecturing them on the cognitive abilities of the animals. The atmosphere at this zoo is "nice" but zoo animals are not the animals he focuses on.

In between working on the chimpanzee test case, he is writing a book about the horror of the lives of farm animals and the cognitive abilities of pigs.

He was in Auckland to give a lecture on animal rights law at the invitation of Auckland University's Law Faculty.

Wise, an American, is a pioneer in this field and has practised solely in animal rights law for decades. In 2000 he was the first person to teach the subject at elite Harvard Law School in Massachusetts, an achievement credited with being instrumental in convincing faculties around the world that animal rights law is a field worthy of study.