In a case that could prove a milestone for animal rights, a Manhattan judge has ordered a university on Long Island to show cause for holding a pair of chimpanzees captive.
NBC News reports Manhattan judge Barbara Jaffe issued an order calling for Stony Brook University to justify holding Hercules and Leo, two chimps that are used in research on physical movement at the university. The Human Rights Project, which is representing the primates, wants them freed and taken to an animal sanctuary in Florida.
When Jaffe issued the order Monday, rights activist hailed the decision for including language about a “writ of habeas corpus” – a legal action only available to “legal persons” under New York state law.
The Nonhuman Rights Project wrote in a release Monday that the wording “implicitly determined Hercules and Leo are ‘persons.’”
Jaffe later struck the language about "habeas corpus" from the order calling for the hearing, the Nonhuman Rights Project said.
Still, the hearing is a milestone in the debate over rights for chimpanzees, which are the closest living relatives to humans. The Nonhuman Rights project said that Jaffe's order calling for a hearing was the first of its kind, and comes after previous courts tossed out legal efforts to have other chimpanzees freed from captivity.
Stony Brook University told the New York Times it “awaits the court’s full consideration on the matter.”
