Posted May 28, 2015
A lawyer
seeking to free two chimpanzees from a state university told a judge Wednesday
that their confinement for research purposes is akin to slavery, the
involuntary detention of people with mental illnesses and imprisonment,
according to Midland
Daily News. Daily Mail also published an article available here
and Daily News here.
Steven
Wise, an attorney with the Nonhuman Rights Project, told Manhattan Supreme
Court Judge Barbara Jaffe in a nearly two-hour hearing that Hercules and Leo
are "autonomous and self-determining beings" who should be granted a
writ of habeas corpus and be moved from Stony Brook University on Long Island
to a sanctuary in Florida.
"They're
essentially in solitary confinement," Wise told the judge before a crowd
of about 100 people packed into the Manhattan courthouse's ceremonial
courtroom. "This is what we do to the worst human criminal."
Christopher
Coulston, an assistant state attorney general representing the university,
countered that chimpanzees are a different species from human beings, according
to Daily
News.
“The Great
Writ(of habeus corpus)should be for human beings," he said.
He also
accused Wise of “venue shopping” because they've lost similar bids in three
other counties.
The judge
reserved decision.
The
8-year-old chimps, who did not attend the hearing, are used for locomotion
studies at Stony Brook, according to Daily
Mail.
Coulston argued
that the case was meritless on procedural grounds because the venue was
improper and because granting the chimps personhood would create a slippery
slope regarding the rights of other animals.
Two other
cases are pending in state court.
Jaffe
didn't make a ruling but thanked both sides for an 'extremely interesting and
well argued' proceeding.
For more information on animal welfare, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
