Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe has granted two chimpanzees a writ of habeas corpus, essentially deeming them to be legal persons by treating their captivity as something that must be explained to the court, reports The Guardian. The chimps in question, Hercules and Leo, were used in medical experiments at Long Island's Stony Brook University. The court order means that SBU President Samuel Stanley must defend why the chimps are being held and argue for why they shouldn't be transferred to Save the Chimps, a chimpanzee sanctuary in Florida.
"She never says explicitly that our non-human plaintiffs were persons but by issuing the order," says Steven Wise, a lawyer for the Nonhuman Rights Project, "she's either saying implicitly that they are or that they can be." A spokesperson for the judge said the order does not say the chimps are persons. Wise has argued that chimpanzees are intelligent, emotionally complex, and self-aware and as such, they should be awarded basic human rights, such as rights that protect against unlawful imprisonment and cruel treatment. The court date for Hercules and Leo is set for May 6.
