Well, not in so many words, but, the effect is the same
VIENNA, Austria – He’s now got a human name — Matthew Hiasl Pan — but he’s having trouble getting his day in court. Animal rights activists campaigning to get Pan, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, legally declared a person vowed Thursday to take their challenge to Austria’s Supreme Court after a lower court threw out their latest appeal.
A provincial judge in the city of Wiener Neustadt dismissed the case earlier this week, ruling that the Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories had no legal standing to argue on the chimp’s behalf.
I have mentioned this previously, and, while the reasoning is good-to make sure that the chimp can have a guardian appointed to take care of him (under Austrian law, only a person can recieve the gifts that are being sent on his behalf to take care of him), some people are going overboard
Group president Martin Balluch insists that Pan is "a being with interests" and accuses the Austrian judicial system of monkeying around.
"It is astounding how all the courts try to evade the question of personhood of a chimp as much as they can," Balluch said.
Look, just admit what you want to do. Or, how about this: take the chimp to another country, where you do not have to deal with that particular law. Certainly, someone caring will take him in.
The Association Against Animal Factories points out that it’s not trying to get Pan declared a human, but rather a person, which would give him some kind of legal status.
Otherwise, he is legally a thing. And with the genetic makeup of chimpanzees and humans so strikingly similar, it contends, that just can’t be.
"The question is: Are chimps things without interests, or persons with interests?" Balluch said.
"A large section of the public does see chimps as beings with interests," he said. "We are looking forward to hear what the high court has to say on this fundamental question."
They are not persons with interests. They are chimps. We should treat them well, as we should with all of God’s creatures. But, he is not a person.
… chimps in Austria and surrender monkeys, apes, gorillas, orangutans, baboons, Kong’s and Mighty Joe Young’s in the Demliblooney DC Zoo! Too many bananas = ape sh*t 2008