Posted October 10, 2014
On Wednesday, a state appellate court heard cases about whether a chimpanzee can be considered a “legal person” and sue for freedom, according to a New York Times article by Jesse McKinley available here. MSN News also published an article available here, NPR here, and TIME here.
The case concerns Tommy, a 26-year-old chimp, with no job or criminal record whose forced to live in a small cage.
The Nonhuman Rights Project, an animal rights group in Florida, lost its initial bid to have a lower-court judge rule whether the chimp was unlawfully imprisoned.
“He can understand the past, he can anticipate the future and he suffers as much in solitary confinement as a human being,” said Steven Wise, president of Nonhuman Rights Project.
Wise plans to take their case to the highest court in New York, the Court of Appeals, if they are shut down again, according to MSN News.
Personhoodis the legal word, but it’s not synonymous with human,” said Wise.
The Nonhuman Rights Project details scientific studies in a 65-page brief to argue that chimpanzees are “autonomous, self-aware, highly intelligent beings that fit the profile courts have previously used in recognizing ‘legal persons.’”
Earlier this year, a preliminary injunction prevented Tommy from being moved outside the state, according to NPR.
The Nonhuman Rights Project has statedthat the case will not end with Tommy, according to TIME.
“Our goal is, very simply, to breach the legal wall that separates all humans from all nonhuman animals.”
For more information on animal welfare, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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