Philip de la Vache ""The Canterbury Tales"". However, the reference to Vache in Chaucer's poem may on good grounds also be a pun on his own name. The phrase Vache, leve! in the first line of the Envoy corresponds to medieval French Vache, reïs!, 'cow, leave!'. The French phase reïs, Vache!, (REISVACHE), when reversed, becomes CHAVSIER, the French form of the poet's name (this is a so-called palindrome). In the First Book of Kings in the Old Testament, the cows on their way to Beth Shemesh are likened to holy men, or monks on their way to the Heavenly Jerusalem. Chaucer may have regarded
International Society for Animal Rights Ms. Tischler names as "the first animal rights lawyer" in the United States ISAR's long-time chairman, Henry Mark Holzer, professor emeritus at Brooklyn Law School. Ms. Tischler credits Professor Holzer with three accomplishments crucial to establishing the field of what today is known as animal rights law. With the support of ISAR, (1) Bringing the first federal and first state lawsuit to invoke explicitly the moral concept of animal rights; (2) Having founded the Animal Rights Law Reporter, which became "the legal clearinghouse for animal rights law information"; and, (3) Organizing the First National Conference on Animal Rights Law"—an undertaking,