Some folks just don't deserve it. Mom always told me that I am no better than anyone else, and dang it all, I lived that way until I understood a few more things and travelled around some. Now I have come to the conclusion that all men/women/thosewhoain'tsure should have the same rights, but I am better than some people I know, and I am a helluva lot better than people who figure gorillas and other animals should... aw hell, you get it.
http://foxnews.com/national/070500/apes_fnc.sml
Are the Courts Going Bananas?
An Ape is the Plaintiff!
Wednesday, July 5, 2000
SEATTLE — Anyone who's been to the zoo knows orangutans, gorillas and other great apes are intelligent, playful and sometimes act like people. But now a team of lawyers is trying to prove apes should have the same rights as their evolutionary cousins — Homo Sapiens.
AP/wide World
Do orangutans have basic human rights — freedom from torture or imprisonment?
Being a person "is a legal term," said Steve Ann Chambers, a Seattle-based attorney who's also the president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. "It just means you have interests that deserve to be protected."
Legal "personhood," adds Chambers, would protect great apes from confinement, torture and needless death.
"Corporations are persons under the law, and municipalities are persons," he points out.
But others say elevating apes to the same legal category as humans would be one giant leap backward for mankind.
"Granted, they might have the same characteristics as people, with the opposable thumbs and stuff. But they're not people," said one visitor to the Woodland Park Zoo.
"God created apes and God created people," said another zoo visitor.
Critics say this could set a potentially dangerous precedent. If apes were to win civil rights, there would be little to stop Bessie the cow from suing McDonald's or Spot the dog from seeking an injunction against dry pet food.
"It, in many ways, might be more of a consciousness-raising event than ... a legally significant event," said Fox News legal analyst Stan Goldman.
But Chambers says his group isn't seeking equal rights for apes, just elevated status.
"They're the legal equivalent of a table or a chair," said Chambers of current laws regulating great apes. "That puts a barrier there that we need to break down. We need to give them access to justice."
The ALDF's Web site states that "[w]e now have sufficient information about the capacities of great apes to make it clear that the moral boundary we draw between us and them is indefensible."
Many animal rights activists imagine the day a chimp could walk into a courtroom and argue its case before a jury, possibly using sign language or a voice synthesizer. More moderate members of the movement say videotaped testimony would be a little more realistic. Either way, they'd like to see to it that apes have their day in court.
— Fox News' Jonathan Serrie contributed to this report
http://foxnews.com/national/070500/apes_fnc.sml
Are the Courts Going Bananas?
An Ape is the Plaintiff!
Wednesday, July 5, 2000
SEATTLE — Anyone who's been to the zoo knows orangutans, gorillas and other great apes are intelligent, playful and sometimes act like people. But now a team of lawyers is trying to prove apes should have the same rights as their evolutionary cousins — Homo Sapiens.
AP/wide World
Do orangutans have basic human rights — freedom from torture or imprisonment?
Being a person "is a legal term," said Steve Ann Chambers, a Seattle-based attorney who's also the president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. "It just means you have interests that deserve to be protected."
Legal "personhood," adds Chambers, would protect great apes from confinement, torture and needless death.
"Corporations are persons under the law, and municipalities are persons," he points out.
But others say elevating apes to the same legal category as humans would be one giant leap backward for mankind.
"Granted, they might have the same characteristics as people, with the opposable thumbs and stuff. But they're not people," said one visitor to the Woodland Park Zoo.
"God created apes and God created people," said another zoo visitor.
Critics say this could set a potentially dangerous precedent. If apes were to win civil rights, there would be little to stop Bessie the cow from suing McDonald's or Spot the dog from seeking an injunction against dry pet food.
"It, in many ways, might be more of a consciousness-raising event than ... a legally significant event," said Fox News legal analyst Stan Goldman.
But Chambers says his group isn't seeking equal rights for apes, just elevated status.
"They're the legal equivalent of a table or a chair," said Chambers of current laws regulating great apes. "That puts a barrier there that we need to break down. We need to give them access to justice."
The ALDF's Web site states that "[w]e now have sufficient information about the capacities of great apes to make it clear that the moral boundary we draw between us and them is indefensible."
Many animal rights activists imagine the day a chimp could walk into a courtroom and argue its case before a jury, possibly using sign language or a voice synthesizer. More moderate members of the movement say videotaped testimony would be a little more realistic. Either way, they'd like to see to it that apes have their day in court.
— Fox News' Jonathan Serrie contributed to this report
SHould they fill out the census too? Race: APE REsidency: Lincon Park Zoo cage #33 Plumbing in the home: No, diapers used Transportation used to get to work: VINES How many living in the home: 75 
, Art