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New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe in
Manhattan issued an order late Monday, called a writ of habeas
corpus, requiring the State University of New York at Stony
Brook on Long Island to defend its right in court to keep the
primates, Hercules and Leo. A writ of habeas corpus requires a
person to be released from unlawful imprisonment.
In what it said was the first case of its kind in the world, the
Nonhuman Rights Project claims that because chimpanzees are
autonomous, intelligent creatures, their captivity amounts to
unlawful imprisonment under the law. They want the pair of
chimps, who are used in research on physical movement at the
university, to be sent to a sanctuary in Florida.
Under the law, such orders can be granted only to "legal
persons," so Jaffe would need to find that chimpanzees have at
least some limited rights traditionally reserved for humans.
Jaffe did not explain the reason for issuing the order in
Monday's brief decision.
The university did not immediately return a request for comment
on Tuesday.
The hearing, in which the university will be represented by the
New York state Attorney General's office, is scheduled for May
6.
In separate cases, the group, founded by Boston attorney and
animal rights activist Steven Wise, sued the owners of two
chimpanzees who live in upstate New York. State judges tossed
out both lawsuits, and separate appeals courts upheld those
rulings.
Wise has asked the state's top court, the Court of Appeals, to
hear the cases. He has said a victory could spur similar cases
on behalf of elephants, dolphins, whales and other intelligent
animals.
In a more traditional animal welfare case in December, a judge
in Argentina said an orangutan who lives at a zoo could be freed
and transferred to a sanctuary.
The group behind that case made similar arguments to those
presented by Wise, but the judge did not go so far as to grant
the orangutan, Sandra, the rights reserved for humans.
The case is Nonhuman Rights Project v. Stanley, New York State
Supreme Court, New York County, No. 152736-2015.
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