Human Rights For Animals?

A New York court will resume hearing a case about the possible illegal detention of two chimps at a university lab.

17:25 27 May 2015

A case have been brought to a New York court asking for the release of two chimps from a university lab to an animal sanctuary. Researchers at Sony Brook University are using the chimps for research on physical movement. 

 

During the course of hearing, Judge Barbara Jaffe suggested that the animals had the right of habeas corpus – the ancient legal principle under which the state has an obligation to produce missing individuals before court. 

 

The two chimps – Hercules and Leo, are being represented by lawyers who are asking the university to justify why they are holding the chimps. 

 

The idea of granting animals with the same rights enjoyed by human beings is relatively new. Opponents of the concept argue that since animals have neither a sense of morality nor an understanding of their duties towards others, they can’t have the same rights. 

 

"We have to put into different categories, ourselves - humanity that is - and the rest of the living world," says the leading British neurobiologist, Prof Sir Colin Blakemore.

 

Prof Carl Cohen of the University of Michigan, Anne Arbor shares that view. Animals, he argues, do not know anything about morality: "Animals do not commit crimes, animals are not attacked for their moral views. Rights are a concept special to the human moral code," he says.