Well, I’ll Be a Monkey’s Uncle!

A chimpanzee named Tommy could be the first nonhuman person recognized by law if the Boston-based Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) gets their way. This group wants Tommy released from a small, dank, cement cage in a cavernous dark shed in Gloversville, N.Y. where he now is kept and I do too. Animals today have some protection from abuse and thus cannot be beaten or deprived of food, shelter or medical care, but they are still legally considered property. Tommy now has a lawyer and trust fund and his advocates want him transferred to the North American Private Sanctuary Alliance in Wauchula, Fla. Founded in 1993, the 120-acre facility houses 45 great apes, many of them former research animals, or maybe in the near future, persons depending on your point of view. I keep thinking of the chimpanzee in the news a while back that was raised by a family of humans but turned on them causing great bodily harm. The sanctuary might be a better place for Tommy, person or not, and the persons of the human variety he will come in contact with.

New York statutory and common law do not limit legal personhood to Homo sapiens (aka humans) and have already conferred legal personhood status on non-human domestic animals who are the beneficiaries of trusts and courts also have routinely extended rights to non-human entities such as corporations. The most important cognitive ability is autonomy, according to NhRP, and Tommy has it along with humans and other great apes. This along with other traits constitutes what makes a person, or in this case, a chimpanzee, a person.

All I can think is, “Wow, maybe I could be a monkey’s uncle aunt!”