The two chimps that started this thread (tone down the snark, please), Hercules and Leo of Stony Brook University, have been denied personhood. The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) has responded:
The Nonhuman Rights Project has filed a Notice of Appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Judicial Department, from a decision and order in “Hercules and Leo” case on August 5, 2015, denying a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
The chimps themselves are now entering retirement, reports The Statesman:
Newsday reported on Friday that Susan Larson, an anatomical sciences professor at Stony Brook, said that Hercules and Leo will retire from Stony Brook research and leave the university by September. However, Steven Wise, a lawyer who is the president and founder of the Nonhuman Rights Project, said his group will go forward with an appeal and will file action against the university if the chimps are not released to a sanctuary.
This caught my eye as I glanced through the legal material:
In any event, the petitioner [NRP] denies that it seeks human rights for the chimpanzees. Rather, it contends that the law can and should employ the legal fiction that chimpanzees are legal persons solely for the purpose of endowing them with the right of habeas corpus, as the law accepts in other contexts the “legal fiction” that nonhuman entities, such as corporations, may be deemed legal persons, with the rights incident thereto.
Trying to get their foot in the door. I suppose this explains why my proposal that Apple be given the next open Supreme Court opening has not been taken seriously.
