European Court agrees to hear chimp's plea for human rights

We have an obligation to protect Matthew. Humans interfered with his ability to live his life out in his natural environment. He has earned the right to be protected now until the end of his life.

Where is the Pro-Life Movement on this issue?

Do they care?

Maybe they could take a break from blockading women's health facilities and spitting on 18 year old girls trying to get checkups just long enough to maybe/possibly show some compassion for this poor animals "right to life"

This poor fellow didn't asked to be kidnapped, locked in a cage and sprayed in the eyes with perfume.

The least we can do is give him a safe home for the rest of his natural life.

This is an article that needs to be spread and heard throughout the world, but sadly I dont think anything wil come of it. Most people don't believe that non humans have the right to life. I hope that she wins, I hope that there are more people out there with this type of thinking and hopefully some of those people are going to be judging this case.

Wow, too bad chimpanzees can't talk.

This will come down to a strict interpretation of what a 'person' is.

What the fuck. There is genocide going on in Darfur, women are being raped, children being sold into prostitution and slavery, unborn babies are being murdered and we are worried about some damn monkey.

we're worried about all those things, johnson, plus the monkey.

"In dismissing the activists' request to get a guardian for Matthew, a lower court ruled that the chimp was neither mentally impaired nor in danger - the legal grounds required for a guardian to be appointed."

Yes because the chimpanzee will be safe roaming the streets using his non mentally impaired mind to find work at a job centre.

I bet Matthew just wants some peanuts, bananas and monkey porn. Seriously though, I thought this was an Onion piece.

I agree with johnson40995. Yes, the monkey deserves defense after being pulled out of the natural world and being abused like that, but there are plenty more important thing that we should be urgently telling the oblivious world about!

Coming to the defense of animals is one of the best examples of standing up for the underpriveleged that I can think of. And therefore I think it's at least equally as important as taking up any other humanitarian cause.

There are always going to be tragedies that might seem to be a more worthy cause, but there are plenty who believe that the suffering of any life is equally tragic. Animals are very different from people as they know nothing but how to live and be happy naturally. Then we come in with all our products that need some sort of "lower" life form to test them on and ruin the natural beauty and hapiness animals possess. We interfere with their ability to survive, and then turn the cold shoulder when something can be done about it. I just think it's horrible to shun animals who wouldn't have these kinds of problems if it weren't for humans, and then pay more attention to our problems like genocide when we cause the majority of our own problems.

When, in our development, did we ever get this stupid about animals?
When did we begin to believe that only the human species can claim a right to live on our planet?
I have seen an elephant paint her self portrait. It was an evocative rendering.
I live with a parrot who speaks English and 4 different cat tongues.
The monkey is a highly intelligent, family-centered, tool-using being, and one of his relatives speaks ASL.

I support animal rights... as long as it doesn't interfere with my food.

HAHAHA Dmitri. Aight, This whole issue contradicts itself. Why dont we let the monkey, or chimp, w/e decide for himself? Since he is an intelligent creature, let him decide. Why do these people think they have to speak on his behalf? what if what they are proposing is not what he wants, his "rights" have then been denied as well. See they are not thinking logically. They may be abusing the animal more than anyone. Ask the ape his feelings before you speak on his behalf.

BTW, all these animal rights activists are probably evolutionist right?Doesn't this contradict the "survival of the fittest"?

Survival of the fittest is something that occurs naturally. When humans interfere with this, like KIDNAPPING an animal from its natural environment, survival of the fittest is no longer of question. We aren't the most natural of species and animal testing can't really be seen as survival of the fittest. These scientists may even be taking the strongest animals from the wild, the ones that would have survived, and put them into cages. Nothing natural applies here.

"The legal wrangle began in February 2007, when the sanctuary (where Matthew lives with another chimp, Rosi, plus a crocodile) filed for bankruptcy protection."

"Activists want to ensure the apes do not wind up homeless. Both were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments."

These are essentially domesticated creatures. They fall somewhere between wild and civilized. What happens if the place closes? Apes start living in the sewers?
stray apes > stray cats

There is a house-fly caught between the two panes of glass in my kitchen. Im glad the tree-huggers arent aware of this or he/she/it may need a lawyer and compensation for the stress that i have caused by watching and waiting for him to die, to feed to my fish. O, the shame....

HE'S NOT A MONKEY! He's an ape. Study primatology just a little bit and you'll see these guys are more like people than one might think... I find it horrible and heart-breaking that there are millions of starving, tortured and opressed people around the planet, yet this guy has every right as well. He is no more or less important, and the truth is, all this lady wants is to be able to 'adopt' him and take care of him. Why not let her?

Maybe we would start treating our own species better if we started by giving some respect to other animals and their rights to not be totally screwed over by us.

This can only be a good thing for all test animals being abused in the world, especially our primate brothers. When need to accept the fact that they (primates) are not meat for our scientific disposal. They feel pain and sorrow just as we do. However, I do think that attaining full "human rights" might be a bit extreme, but the fact that we can acknowledge the need for some level of protection rights is needed, is a great start.

Great...now we are going to teach kids that Monkeys are like humans. Until one slaughters a human and then what? They are animals and they have animal instincts. Unless you can communicate to them you are not sure what it is they are capable of doing that could be vicious. Just like the tiger and the magicians. Yes the tiger was loving and kind and he did right....but all it took was one thing and it tried to protect one and it tore his throat.

Did the tiger mean to do that? Mean to cause harm? No. But one cannot think that a tiger is a person....which is a human....which is what they are trying to pass off as such with this monkey.

I agree the monkey should be protected as a MONKEY not as something it isn't. I hate animal lovers who have to go out of their way to treat animals better than humans and justify it with gross reasoning.

Protect the monkey within the laws that you have. Don't create a new word or redefine an old one to make it more agreeable for you while screwing up the future cases with such a word.

"But your honor I did have sex with a person." ---- Monkey/Horse/Tiger....if this passes when is it going to stop with what is a person?

I don't think we should give any animal human rights until he can learn some kind of language,such as sign language or learn to right.This monkey won't even know its getting rights because he won't even know the meaning of rights.

He had the right to be born as an integral part of the world we inherited and he had the right to be left alone without human interference to live his life in the environment he was born in. The question is what right do humans have to enslave him and use him for experimental purposes and then abandon him when it's inconvenient?

Chique -- very, very well said.

J_Jammer, weren't you taught as a kid that monekys or primates were like humans? Have you ever been viciously attacked because of this knowledge? We already have attacks on people in asian countries where they run wild around busy places. Tourists get out of their cars to feed them and Boom! The primates go crazy. Matthew's case is obviously different because his owner knows how to care for and rehabilitate him. There's little to slim chances of him surviving in the wild because no group would accept him and he would probably starve or get killed. But because we keep tigers in cages and they rebel, you disapprove of this guy getting help? The situations don't even seem comparable.

I know about monkeys in Asia and how several pushed someone off of their balcony and killed him.

And I understand that this situation is different. I am only at odds with calling him a person. He's not a person.

There is a way to get him protected without lying about his status. Steal him if they must but I refuse to think that it's a good idea to get him to be a person.

Are titles that important, though, if it helps saves a life that would have been fine w/out our intereference? It's not like they're going to dress him up in little ties and suits and send him off to the daily grind. He cannot recieve monetary gifts under Austrian law unless he is a person, so that's where most the motivation comes from. He has an upkeep fee where he is being held right now, and they probably don't know what will happen to him if they aren't able to donate money.

It just seems like one of those things like,
"You can't say you're a Sex Pistols fan, you've only been listening to them for two months. You're a poser."

Does it really bother you that much that a primate half-way around the world will take the name of our species? Or do you think he will give us a bad name?

Legally? Yes it does.

Change something in the legal system and it ripples....this is a positive outcome..save a single monkey. What is being risked in the future because of this legal muddling?

How can anyone (human) not feel some sort of sympathy for another livinig being that wants to be free?

As the great "Rodney King" once said, "Can't we all just get along?"

Amen to that!

wow...

you know matthew is a chimp....... right?

who are you asking?

J Jammer is actually right. You cannot have a court classify a chimp as a person. Person is a term reserved for humans and not animals. While chimps do feel emotions that does not mean they are “persons.” If you’re going to say person equals living individual then I would counter by saying emotion means sensation which all living things have. At that point its unlawful to feed yourself because all living things are capable of feeling sensations.

If these people would actually purchase the chimp from the sanctuary this wouldn’t be a problem at all. Instead these people are trying to steal the chimp using the court system. If you guys really care so much for this one chimp I suggest you raise the necessary money .

Its no wonder everything is messed up in the world. People care more about a monkey than fixing real problems. It's just ridiculous.

Well there's a lot of compassion in this bunch...

I'm sorry that he's taken out of his natural habitat. But so are the animals that are placed in the zoo. In this case, maybe they should plead for human rights too.

But that's kinda funny. Because some people in the world don't even have any rights whatsoever.

Having compassion doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to agree with the actions of this women. Just like making generalities based on a single comment doesn’t necessarily mean they’re true. I like chimps, I just don’t think someone should exploit the legal system to try to help one out. A chimp is not a person and its stupid that someone should even try to debate it.

Do you know the difference between an arguement and a debate? You're trying to force your views on me and I'm just stating how I feel. Why do you care so much that I care so much? I thought that this was a site with intelligent people. I don't expect people to agree with me. I want a good conversation with people who think alike or differently. Just good conversation. Is that icon your picture? Because your definitely acting that age.