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Extending legal rights to apes

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Who says that Europeans are concerned only with bad pop music and the strength of the Euro?

Last month, L.A. Unleashed reported that Austrian animal rights activists are fighting to get a 26-year-old chimpanzee legally declared a ‘person,’ and they say they have filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

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Now it turns out that Spain is pondering the idea of extending legal rights to apes. The Times of London reports:

In what is thought to be the first time a national legislature has granted such rights to animals, the Spanish parliament’s environmental committee voted to approve resolutions committing the country to the Great Apes Project, designed by scientists and philosophers who say that humans’ closest biological relatives also deserve rights. The resolution, adopted with crossparty support, calls on the government to promote the Great Apes Project internationally and ensure the protection of apes from “abuse, torture and death.” “This is a historic moment in the struggle for animal rights,” Pedro Pozas, the Spanish director of the Great Apes Project, told The Times. “It will doubtless be remembered as a key moment in the defence of our evolutionary comrades.” Reactions to the vote were mixed. Many Spaniards were perplexed that the country should consider it a priority when the economy is slowing sharply and Spain has been rocked by violent fuel protests. Others thought it was a strange decision, given that Spain has no wild apes of its own.

-- Alice Short

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