Going along with chimps weilding spears...

An anonymous reader writes "A Brazilian court has already issued a writ of habeas corpus in the name of a chimp. And now an Austrian court may well decide that a chimpanzee is a 'person' with what up until now have been called human rights." From the story in the Guardian/Observer: "He recognizes himself in the mirror, plays hide-and-seek and breaks into fits of giggles when tickled. He is also our closest evolutionary cousin. A group of world leading primatologists argue that this is proof enough that Hiasl, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, deserves to be treated like a human. In a test case in Austria, campaigners are seeking to ditch the 'species barrier' and have taken Hiasl's case to court. If Hiasl is granted human status — and the rights that go with it — it will signal a victory for other primate species and unleash a wave of similar cases."

 

Really don't have time to express my opinion right now.. It's late, I'm suffering bad from allergies and need to go to work tomorrow. So I'll edit later... This is about the most interesting thing I've read in a while though...

Edit:

Well, I'm back... It's good Friday, got home early for work so I figured I'd come back and edit in my own thoughts... Personally I think that, these people are crazy.... Call me speciesist I suppose, but I think that in order to get "Human Rights" any species should have at least "Human" intelligence (or greater). It may be that the chimp laugh, cry and exhibit all these other emotions, but to be frank.... They are still creatures very much ruled by their environment. While it may be that in a few thousand (more likely million) years they may be our sentient cousins almost indistinguishable from our selves, the fact is right now they're not quite there yet. Personally, I would say that for the time being, chimps should continue to receive, animal rights. But hey, maybe I'm wrong and we'll all be taken over by a big army of chimps ;)