Is America ready for Chimpanzee rights?

On May 27, for the first time, a New York judge will consider whether chimpanzees are persons under the law.

“This is the first time that a judge is ordering into her courtroom the captors of a non-human animal to provide a legally justifiable reason why they are holding these animals captive,” said Natalie Prosin, executive director of the Non-Human Rights project.

The captive chimps are named Hercules and Leo &#8212 and they’re part of an anatomical study at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

“What we are trying to do is ask the court to grant these chimpanzees just one legal right, and the legal right that we are asking for is the right to bodily liberty,” Prosin said.

Essentially, Habeas Corpus. Prosin’s group has filed nine affidavits from the world’s leading primatologists to persuade the judge that Hercules and Leo are simply too intelligent to be held captive, and should be placed in a sanctuary in Florida.

“Here in the United States, corporations are considered legal persons,” Prosin notes. “And we argue that because they are so autonomous and self-aware and self-directed that qualifies them for legal personhood status.”

But Natalie says as extraordinary as these chimps are, they don’t know sign language, and she admits she doesn’t really know what they’re thinking. For all we know they might hate the idea of living outdoors.

Well it’s a possibility…