Hey JAMES : Got a new client for you!!!!!!!! International Herald Tribune
Austria: Activists ask European human rights court to declare
chimpanzee a 'person'
The Associated Press
Published: May 21, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/21/europe/EU-GEN-Austria-Chimp-Challenge.php VIENNA, Austria: Matthew Hiasl Pan isn't even a human, but that hasn't
stopped his supporters from taking his case to Europe's top human
rights court.
Austrian animal rights activists are fighting to get Pan — a
26-year-old chimpanzee — legally declared a "person" and they said
Wednesday they have filed an appeal with the European Court of Human
Rights in Strasbourg, France.
The Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories insists the
chimp needs that legal standing so a guardian can be appointed to look
out for his interests — especially if the bankrupt animal shelter
caring for him shuts down.
"We appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, because everybody is
entitled to a fair trial, even chimps," said Martin Balluch, the
group's president.
In January, Austria's Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that
had rejected the activists' request to have a trustee appointed for
Pan. The high court ruled that under Austrian law, only people are
entitled to have guardians.
Pan's supporters, who gave him a human-sounding name last year as part
of their campaign to win him "personhood," argue that if the chimp is
not a person, he must be a thing.
But that can't be, they say — not when chimps and humans have so much
DNA in common.
"This question is of paramount importance," said Balluch, whose team
claims to have obtained expert opinions supporting its stance from
prominent scientists, anthropologists, lawyers and philosophers.
The legal tussle began in February 2007, when the shelter where Pan
and another chimp, Rosi, have lived filed for bankruptcy protection.
Activists want to ensure the apes don't wind up homeless. Both were
captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled to Austria for
use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers intercepted the
shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter.
Their upkeep costs €5,000 (US$7,800) a month. Donors have offered to
help, but under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal
gifts.
Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Pan, whose
life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But they argue that
only personhood would ensure he isn't sold to someone outside Austria,
where he's protected by strict animal cruelty laws.
In dismissing the activists' request to get a guardian for Pan, a
lower court ruled that the chimp was neither mentally impaired nor in
danger — the legal grounds required for a guardian to be appointed.
It did not directly address the issue of whether a chimpanzee can be
considered a "person." Pan's supporters stress that they are not
trying to get the chimp declared a human, just a person.
Eberhart Theuer, the animal rights group's chief legal adviser, said
Wednesday there is legal precedent to appoint a guardian for an
individual incapable of expressing himself.
"As long as Matthew Pan is not recognized as a person, he could be
sold abroad or killed for economic reasons," Theuer said. "His life
depends on this decision. This case is about the fundamental question:
Who is the bearer of human rights? Who is a person according to the
European Human Rights Charter?"
Paula Stibbe, a British expatriate in Vienna who helps care for Pan
and has petitioned the courts to be his guardian, said anyone who
spends time with the chimp "will see him as a person."
"In his home in the African jungle, he would have been well able to
look after himself without a guardian," Stibbe said.
"But since he was abducted into an alien environment, traumatized and
locked up in an enclosure, it did become necessary for me to act on
his behalf," she said. "Since he has no close relatives, I am doing
this as the person closest to him."