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Underground > Laboratory >

Ape Rights

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Quantum of Solace

21:18 / 04.04.07

Red Concrete- check this part In New Zealand, apes - gorillas, orang utans, chimpanzees and bonobos - were granted special rights as 'non-human hominids' in 1999 to grant protection from maltreatment, slavery, torture, death and extinction.

I imagine they're aiming for something like that, and using the case to drum up publicity and support as pressure groups are wont to do. You're right about the lack of barbescience though, sheesh.

23:08 / 30.04.07

Alas, not yet to be.

The guardianship case was thrown out of an Austrian court.

In a trustee court hearing on 24 April, the judge denied the request. She said that if she appointed a legal guardian for a chimp, then this might create the public perception that humans with court-appointed legal guardians are at the same level as animals.

Balluch says his group will appeal the decision to a higher district court.

14:18 / 11.05.07

From yesterday's Guardian:

Let me be a bonobo.

Whilst I am for enhanced rights for some species (and our nearest primate relatives are amongst those I think need to be upgraded). I have a problem with articles like this that seem to try and romanticise the life of other primates as some sort of utopian alternative. I realise Barbara Ehrenreich is not necessarily being serious here but still.

Claiming that the chimp itself is applying for human status is inaccurate anyway. Even the few primates which have shown some aptitude for sign language have only been able to master it at a very basic level.

Applying human rights to a chimp is not what is needed. We need to apply chimp rights to chimps. Their society and lifestyle differs from ours in many ways and that needs to be taken into account.

Primate rights certainly need to include the right not to be experimented on or, at least, not to be experimented on in ways which can harm them (plus some form of compensation appropriate to the species should be offered, ie food).

How would primate rights be determined with regards to land ownership? Does a group of chimpanzees own the area in which they roam? If a company wanted to exploit resources in a region controlled/occupied/owned by chimps how would they deal with that?

Thoughts?

10:56 / 31.05.08

Like a hairy squid thread, up from the depths it rises!

Read this on the Guardian site this morning and thought people would be interested.

Inside a research facility that uses primates as test subjects.

From the bottom of that article:

Research using non-human primates is the most controversial area of animal research, but it accounts for a tiny minority of experiments. No great apes (chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas) have been used in experiments in the UK since 1986 and it has been government policy not to use them since 1997. No prosimians (for example, bush babies and lemurs) have been used for several years. Baboons have not been used since 1998. Scientists argue that animal research is highly regulated to ensure it is carried out as humanely as possible. Home office inspectors make unannounced visits to licensed laboratories to check standards of animal welfare. A five-year licence can take six months of detailed work to put together and submit to the Home Office. The research is expensive. Housing a marmoset for a year costs around £4,000; a larger macaque monkey around £18,000.

Notes from Boris-town

18:05 / 26.06.08

Spain to comply with Great Apes Project guidelines!

18:56 / 26.06.08

That Lurid, that is. He's a man of influence.

14:40 / 06.07.08

the chief difference between humans and animals (and other forms of life) is cultural.

we have our different ways of communicating, eating, sleeping and living. based on how our physical bodies interact with our respective ecosystems.

that said, the right should protect the individual from suffering etc... however, in terms of one species eating another, as long as the overall populations thrive, then the consumption of an individual doesn't seem as tragic (unless it was someone you know).

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