It was only a matter of time before chimpanzees, who’ve long been compared to humans, including hypebeasts, were recognized as legal people.
New York Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe made the official ruling, granting the basic human right of habeas corpus (used as a protection against unlawful imprisonment) in the case of two chimpanzees, Hercules and Leo, currently used for biomedical research at New York’s Stony Brook University in Long Island. The chimps will be moved to a sanctuary in Ft. Pierce, Florida.
Executive director Natalie Prosin of The Nonhuman Rights Project, the organization that filed the case, said:
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There's a possibility the ruling may be reversed, but it's clear the course of animal rights will change.
Update: Judge Barbara Jaffe released an amended order in which the words “Writ of Habeas Corpus” were crossed out, clarifying that she hadn't actually granted habeas corpus, as an "inaccurate press release" from the Nonhuman Rights Project said, but merely that she agreed to the case hearing.
The Nonhuman Rights Project rectified their statement saying, “the court believes at minimum that the chimpanzees could be possibly legal persons…without deciding that they are.”
