Court grants limited human rights to ape

"A court in Argentina has ruled that a shy orangutan who spent the last 20 years in a zoo can be granted some legal rights enjoyed by humans.

Lawyers had appealed to free Sandra from the Buenos Aires zoo by arguing that although not human, she should be given legal rights.

They had argued that she was being illegally detained.

If there is no appeal, the ape will be transferred to a sanctuary in Brazil where she will enjoy greater freedom.

The singular case hung on whether the animal was a "thing" or a "person".

In December a New York State court threw out a request to free a privately owned chimpanzee arguing that the animal was property and had no legal rights.

'A person'

Lawyers for Argentina's Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights (Afada) said Sandra was "a person" in the philosophical, not biological, sense.

She was, they argued, in a situation of illegal deprivation of freedom as a "non-human person".

They had filed a "habeas corpus" writ in her favour last November over "the unjustified confinement of an animal with probable cognitive capability".

Afada lawyer Paul Buompadre was quoted as saying by La Nacion newspaper: "This opens the way not only for other Great Apes, but also for other sentient beings which are unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in zoos, circuses, water parks and scientific laboratories."

The court judges had rejected the writ several times before deciding finally that Sandra could be considered to have rights to freedom which needed defending.

Sandra was born in 1986 in a German zoo and arrived in Buenos Aires in September 1994.

She regularly tried to avoid the public in her enclosure.

If there is no appeal against the court's decision from the Buenos Aires zoo, she will be transferred to a primate sanctuary in Brazil where she can live in partial liberty."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30571577

Thoughts?

Yay! Apes are people too!

Can we tax them?

Oh god why

@dngn4774: Lol, we should. They should be drafted too if war breaks out.

All the while this ape was thinking about how it's next poo would smell.

Bump

The comments so far are just so good. xD

No. Apes are not humans and should be given no rights. Yes they should have freedom but not rights.

If this is true, its dumb.

. . . Wat

Soth Murica!

@dbvse7: Yup

While animals should be protected, they aren't people. My dogs may think that they're people sometimes, but they're just little yorkies who are too spoiled for their own good lol. Sometimes I fear that the decline in common sense is what is hurting the world the most.

@mandarinestro: I think Planet of the Apes is a good example of why giving them guns is a bad idea.

And anyway, at this point, why the Hell not? We allow people dumber than chimps to do stuff they probably shouldn't all the time. Maybe some competition will be good for them...

Home...

Family...

Future....

Humans are the worst race of animals the face of Earth has ever seen.

I remember last time we made an ape our equal.

It tore a woman's face off.

@scouterv: Lol, so true.

Remember that short-lived NBC sitcom "Mr. Smith"? About the talking orangutan who became a political adviser?

Or that ABC show from the 70's, "Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp" where everyone was played by a chimpanzee?

@monsterstomp: Humans made this world what it is. Humans are the only ones that actively try to make the world a better place for other species. Please explain why you think humans are the "worst race of animals the face of Earth has ever seen".

Stupid

hmmmmmmmmmmmm..

Caesar would be proud.

Right.....

Without humans, the world would flourish until a natural disasters strikes (like it has for billions of years), with humans, I wouldn't be surprised if the Earth is destroyed a decade from now.

@dccomicsrule2011: *Face palm*

Facts are facts, humans stink. ^-^

Bump

Based simply off of the almost certainly poor treatment it and other zoo animals receive: yes. Get it the *&%$ out of there.

Give it honorary Human status. Like Hellboy.

Now some semblance of human rights have been granted, our world shall slowly turn into The Planet of the Apes.

^_^

@claymore1998: yeah but at least ape shall not kill ape.

I mean, until they start doing it for fun and profit...

@nothingclever: for that we need Cesar ^_^

@claymore1998: just don't teach the apes the word or concept of "NO!" 'Cause that is where %$#& starts to go downhill.

Soon

King Kong for the president of the United States! Woohoo.

Oh wait...

Bump

Sounds great to me.

I don't approve of humanizing animals but anything that grants them freedoms closer to the wild or better treatment is a win in my book. There's no reason an animal should suffer just because it's not as smart as a human.

Better place for other species? Really? Sure there are a small minority that might actively try too, but in a general sense humanity is responsible for the extinction of countless of species. We are also destroying the enviroment to the point where the entire planet may be unuseable in a matter of years, yet we have ways of fixing it to some degree as well as means of researching better ways of doing it but we don't because the vast majority chose to put their own welfare above anything else and leave all their problems for their grandchildren to solve (who will probably make the same mistakes), in short we are slowly killing the planet including ourselves because of self gratification. And then there's also the fact that humanity is the only species that kills for pleasure, and before you bring up foxes like everyone else does that's called surplus killing, it has nothing to do with fun or pleasure.

Humans have intelligence which can be both a curse and a blessing, that's also the reason why we have individuals so there will always be a few people who recognize and dedicate themselves to solving these problems, that is great, but if we are talking humanity as a whole majority rules and we are not quite so noble as you seem to think.

There's a reason for you.

Ehh. I disagree with my 3 month old self strongly. Humans have no way of destroying the Earth, or life in a pragmatic sense.

They can speed up the process of extinction for themselves and other forms of life, sure, but all that would do is lead to more unique life forms to adapt in the long run - only for the cycle to repeat itself in Ad Infinitum of near destruction continue, either through Volcanic activity, meteorite, or a sudden drop is oxygen level. Chaos, that will lead life on the brink of extinction will happen, with, or without Homo Sapiens; humans only speed up the natural process of it all.

How dare you say that! Just look at these cuddly wuddly cute wittle apes.

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