Posted on 06/09/2006 7:17:34 PM PDT by Pikamax
Drive to give 'human' rights to apes leaves Spanish divided By David Rennie (Filed: 10/06/2006)
Spain could soon become the first country in the world to give chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and other great apes some of the fundamental rights granted to human beings under a law being proposed by members of the ruling Socialist coalition.
The law would eliminate the concept of "ownership" for great apes, instead placing them under the "moral guardianship" of the state, much as is the case for children in care, the severely handicapped and those in comas, said the MP behind the project, Francisco Garrido.
Apes in zoos would be moved to sanctuaries
Great apes held in Spanish zoos would be moved to state-built sanctuaries, unless there was a risk that moving them would harm their emotional welfare, he said.
The law would also make it a criminal offence to mistreat or kill a great ape, except in cases of self-defence or medical euthanasia.
As a first step, Mr Garrido, a Green MP for Seville who sits with the Socialists, will propose a resolution on the rights of great apes before the parliament's environment committee at the end of this month. He said he expects the committee to approve the resolution which already has received the public support of ministers.
Mr Garrido said he was confident that either the government, or the ruling Socialist majority, would introduce a Great Apes Law after the summer recess.
The Roman Catholic Church has expressed concerns about his resolution.
The Archbishop of Pamplona and Tudela, Fernando Sebastian, has said that only a "ridiculous or distorted society" could propose such a law.
"We don't give rights to some people - such as unborn children, human embryos, and we are going to give them to apes," the archbishop said.
Amnesty International's Spanish branch has also expressed concerns, saying that humans have yet to see their rights fully guaranteed. A senior member of the Spanish opposition Partido Popular, Arturo Esteban, called the proposal an "act of moral poverty".
The proposal has been front page news since parliament heard testimony from members of the Great Ape Project (GAP), a Seattle-based pressure group which campaigns for the creation of a "community of equals" in which humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans would all enjoy three fundamental rights: the right to life, to freedom, and to protection from torture.
Their "declaration" calls for great apes to be kept locked up only when they are a threat to the community, and then only with a right of appeal to the courts, with representation by a lawyer.
Mr Garrido's parliamentary resolution would explicitly endorse the approach of the Great Apes Project, and would call on the state to use its voting membership of international forums and organisations to protect great apes from "mistreatment, slavery, death and extinction".
Pedro Pozas, the secretary general of the Spanish branch of the GAP, said that animals reared in captivity might remain in zoos, even after the law's passage, "provided that they are kept in good conditions, with a habitat adapted to their conditions and needs."
Mr Pozas criticised the trade and exchange of apes between zoos and breeding centres. "To move a baby ape is to split up a family. They have feelings, they can feel sad, and they have the capacity for love. If a zoo has no room for new births, it would be better to sterilise the females."
In 1999, New Zealand passed an animal welfare act stating that research, testing or teaching involving the use of a great ape requires government approval, and a finding that "any likely benefits are not outweighed by harm to the great ape".
Britain has also banned medical experimentation on great apes.
Why stop at the Great Apes when fish need love too?
Democrats may be taking notes on this with an eye towards new voters.
Just when I think that I have "heard it all", something like this comes along.
I noticed that the organization pushing this is based in the U.S. How long before the moonbat party embraces it as an issue?
BANG!
Righteous!
What if the ape doesn't want to be sterilized?
Do they want to give them rights so they can start taxing them?
They have got to be kidding.
A big step backward for the apes. In America, they will get the Terry Schiavo treatment. In Germany, if they don't have a job, they will have to work as prostitutes. But wait, we can send them to Congress. Maybe this is a good idea.
What about the rights of unborn apes?
Rather than lifting apes up (they can't be raised above that which they are), such a course of action would bring humans, especially those who are disabled or elderly, down. Not only is giving apes something just short of human rights absurd, but it is also dangerous, reducing man to the status of animals. if animals are can kill each other as part of natural selection, why can't man if man is only an animal? The decline of man's society continues via the current atheistic/evolutionary outlook so popular today.
With rights come responsibilities. I guess not any more.
They taste like chicken.
I wonder how the Spanish Islamokazis are going to take that.
Here I thought they tasted like pork :-)
I'm going to have 4 wives -- and two of them will be monkeys. I know my rights!!!
Peter Singer alert...he is the "ethicist" who teaches at Princeton and believes animals have more rights than humans.
....animals are can.... to ......animals can.....
P.S. how are the lines through words some freepers use produced (which could have been used to cross out the are in the line above)? and what is mho?
Now if they give the apes human rights they won't have the right to sterilize the apes without their permission. Maybe they'll just find some human to marry the female ape and then he'll tell them that she told him they have her permission to sterilize her...it worked to murder a young woman in FL, why not use the same concept to sterilize an ape?
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