NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang reports “the animal rights group was trying to get them released to a sanctuary by arguing that the chimps have complex cognitive abilities and should be considered legal ‘persons.’ In the ruling, Justice Barbara Jaffe acknowledges that similarities between chimpanzees and humans ‘inspire the empathy for a beloved pet.’ “.
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There was no immediate response from the university.
The Nonhuman Rights Project is a non-profit American animal rights organization that seeks to change the legal status of at least some non-human animals from property to persons, according to the group’s website.
The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), which brought the lawsuit in an attempt to free the primates, has vowed to appeal.
In a statement issued Thursday, Wise said he plans to appeal Jaffe’s decision to the New York Appellate Division. “We will be quoting from her opinion for years”.
“The case began as a salvo of lawsuits filed by NhRP in December of 2013”. The chimps are held by Stony Brook University. That happened late this past May, with Wise squaring off against Christopher Coulston, an assistant state attorney general representing the university.
Therefore, “animals, including chimpanzees and other highly intelligent mammals, are considered property under the law”, Jaffe wrote.
Though she dismissed the case, Judge Jaffe said efforts to extend legal rights to chimpanzees are understandable; someday they may even succeed, Diamond reported. She also states that the concept of legal personhood continues to evolve: “Not very long ago, only Caucasian male, property-owning citizens were entitled to the full panoply of legal rights under the United States Constitution”.
The case is the Nonhuman Rights Project v. Stanley, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 152736-2015.
Richard Drew/AP Nonhuman Rights Project president Steven Wise, seen at court in May, said the group is “looking forward to promptly appealing Justice Jaffe’s thoughtful and comprehensive decision” after the judge ruled Thursday that chimps are not “persons”.
“She agreed that personhood is not limited to human beings and it’s not a matter of biology”.
“Given the precedent to which I am bound, it is hereby ordered, that the petition for a writ of habeas corpus is denied and the proceeding dismissed”, Jaffe ruled.
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The chimps should be outside and with other chimpanzees, Wise said. “The Nonhuman Rights Project is in my view a diversion from the central question of what form of protections should be afforded by people to animals and why”.
