It's worth noting that the same attitude (and words) was given to ending slavery, and giving women the right to vote.

Animal rights - and that is certain legal rights for animals - do exist in some forms (anti-cruelty laws etc), and never rule out the possibility that the status quo could change.

Look, can chimps vote? Own property? NO! I am utterly amazed at how some of you don't see how absurd this story is.

And I agree that animals should have animal rights. But giving them human rights is just so asinine and futile it just pains me to see that people are even wasting their time on giving this story actual intelligent thought.

I support chimp rights. How much is and what to cover is negotiable. In this case I ahve to question if this is a move to get the money, but she was involved with the chimp before someone left it several thousand pound. I would give her the benefit of the doubt.

Would it be any different if a Alien race came to earth and decided the numerous hairless monkeys were intelligent but lesser animals than them and thus did not deserve any rights.

I watched a documentary several years ago about how the chimps were being treated and one of the guys in the show used to work as a grad student with the chimps and was one of the people that taught the chimps sign language.

The chimps know sign language and can communicate with anyone who knows sign language.

The guy walked in after a number of years and the chimp saw him and got excited and started signing to him evgen though it hadnt been used for signing experiments for years, it was now used for medical experiments.

The chimp got excited, wanted to touch and hold hius hand, spent time grroing him and when the guy left the chimp got sad and depressed, like any human would.

I would dare anyone who saw that show and saw how the chimp acted to its former handler to not be emotionally moved by its actions. The chimp may not have been human but it certainly deserved to be treated in a HUMANE fashion.

In a related story one of the Gorillas who had learned sign language in a American University was released back into its African home. Scientists who were observing were suprised to see the released Gorilla teaching sign language to the other Gorillas and habits and actions it had learned in captivity. Unfortunately the Gorilla was later found dead and its body dismembered and parts missing. Poachers had killed the Gorilla for body parts to feed a large black market demand for animal parts for folk medicine.

And neither could women or black people, during history.

The suggestion that they could was just as absurd to some then as this is to you.

I don't "Homo Sapien" or "Human" anywhere in the word "Chimpanzee," so, if we're giving them human style rights, you might as well rename it to "Advanced Animal Right."

I'm all for animal rights, but giving human rights to something that's not human is stupid.

In 1700's and early 1800's black people were considered not much better than Monkeys and had no basic human rights and could not vote. Some were not treated any better than animals. Some pics I have seen I would not treat my animal that bad.

I dont think anyone is saying let animals vote and run for political office. Its about seeing animals as intelligent beings with the same respect and consideration you would a mentally disabled person or a young child.

I am actually suprised at how strongly some of you object to recognizing higher intelligent animals as worthy of recognition and respect.

You can say its just a animal but if you walked in and sat down and the animal could say hello and carry on a conversation with you at what point do you realize this is not just some stupid animal?

They're called "human rights" for a reason. Giving animals the same rights as humans ought to mean that the animals are subject to the same laws as humans. In which case they would all be arrested for indecency by not wearing clothes in a public place...

The thing is, that the definition of animal is somewhat wobbly.
What do we consider animals?
Any creature or entity that is not us?
Then why not consider god an animal as well.

But if the deciding factor was sentience.......
Which apes as well as some other mammals (mainly whale type mammals) exhibit, then humans, as well as chimpanzees and gorillas, bonobos, Orangutans and whales, would not be animals.
Thus being over animals, they could technically deserve a number of rights that would put them over other animals.
Of course some rights are impossible to grant, but others....

We as homo sapiens havent even guaranteed others HUMANS their natural rights. how about we get that shiat done before we start worrying about the emotional state of a tuna fish...

But the thing is, we are not worrying about tune fish, but about sentient beings.