That was just a joke over the fact that they are currently considering (or perhaps have passed) legislation that will grant certain elevated rights to the Great Apes akin to rudimentary human rights. I assume my tongue-in-cheek proposal to breed and enslave thousands of grape picking chimps or monkeys would not sit well with the proponents of that legislation.
If you can train a monkey to pick fruit without eating it, I'll hire you to teach obedience skills to my cat.