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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Animal Rights Group Suing for Chimpanzees’ Release Given Their Day in Court
April 22, 2015 - 2:07 PM
By Melanie Hunter
While pro-lifers are fighting to have unborn babies legally recognized as
persons through fetal personhood legislation, animal rights activists are
hoping for the same for chimpanzees.
The Nonhuman Rights Project filed a lawsuit on behalf of chimps Hercules and
Leo – lab animals at Stony Brook University – challenging their detention
and that of two other chimpanzees on private property, saying they were “
were too cognitively and emotionally complex to be held in captivity and
should be relocated to an established chimpanzee sanctuary,” Science
Magazinereported.
The group petitioned three lower court judges with a writ of habeas corpus
– usually used to prevent people from being unlawfully imprisoned. The
judges struck down each case.
On Monday, however, New York Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe ordered
Stony Brook to appear in court at a show cause hearing on May 6 – which was
then postponed to May 27 – to respond to the animal rights group’s
petition.
Upon news of the ruling, Science magazine noted: “The ruling marks the
first time in U.S. history that an animal has been covered by a writ of
habeas corpus, which typically allows human prisoners to challenge their
detention. The judicial action could force the university, which is believed
to be holding the chimps, to release the primates, and could sway
additional judges to do the same with other research animals.”
Natalie Prosin, executive director of the Nonhuman Rights Project, said that
no matter the outcome of the hearing, her group would use “the habeas
corpus ruling to sway judges in other jurisdictions.”
“It strengthens our argument that these nonhuman animals are not property,
” Prosin added.
Not so fast.
Jaffe later amended the court order, and the words “writ of habeas corpus”
were removed, “suggesting that the court has made no decision” on whether
the chimps “deserve to be treated as legal persons,” Science magazine
reported in an update to its story on the case on Wednesday.
Still, the animal rights group considers it unprecedented that the court has
issued an order to show cause in a case such as this.
Stony Brook refused to “comment on the specifics” of the case, according
to Science magazine. |
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