Two chimpanzees were granted a writ of habeas corpus this week, but a New York judge rescinded it after several news outlets noted that it could give them legal rights similar to a human.
According to Wired, the Nonhuman Rights Project filed lawsuits in the state supreme court on behalf of two chimps, Hercules and Leo, that are privately owned by Stony Brook University and used in scientific research.
Chimps are currently considered property in the eyes of the law, however the lawsuit asked the judge to issue writs of habeas corpus for Hercules and Leo that would ask their owner to justify their captivity.
On Monday, Justice Barbara Jaffe made the unprecedented move of granting such a writ, but soon amended it after it broke into the headlines,
Science magazine reported.
"It’s a breakthrough. The judge is implicitly saying that chimps are — or at least could be — persons," Steven Wise, an attorney and founder of the Nonhuman Rights Project, said before the amendment literally struck out the writ.
Now, Hercules and Leo's case seems to mirror others filed by the organization. In those cases, courts have found that chimps don't have certain rights granted to humans because they can't fulfill human social obligations, or that moving chimps from private ownership to a preserve does not give them true liberty, as they are in captivity in either case.
The Nonhuman Rights Project confirmed the judge's revocation of the writ on its Facebook page on Tuesday.
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