An animal rights group is taking to the courts in an effort to seek personhood for a chimpanzee. In a lawsuit filed today in Fulton County, New York, the Nonhuman Rights Project demands that “Tommy” — a privately owned chimp who lives on a reindeer farm in the state — be freed from his owners and moved to a sanctuary.
According to the group, they’ll also file two additional lawsuits seeking sanctuary for chimps in other parts of the state. Those chimps are Kiko, living at a nonprofit center, and Hercules and Leo, being used for research at Stony Brook University. In all three instances, the group says, the animals are being held captive and, because of key cognitive capacities including the ability to make choices, have a limited right to freedom and cannot be held in captivity.
via The Verge
