Bid to give chimps human rights fails

TWO chimpanzees that were kept in cages do not have the same legal rights as people, a US appeal court has ruled.

Steven Wise, a lawyer for the Nonhuman Rights Project, argued that the chimps – caged separately in a trailer park in New York and at a primate sanctuary in Niagara Falls – should be moved to a large outdoor facility in Florida.

He had wanted the adult male apes, named Tommy and Kiko, to be granted a writ of habeas corpus, which for people relates to whether someone is being unlawfully detained or imprisoned and should be taken before a judge.

But the New York Supreme Court’s appellate division, in a ruling affirming a lower court’s decision, said that while Mr Wise’s ‘avowed mission is certainly laudable’, there was no legal precedent for chimpanzees being considered people.