Should apes have basic human rights?

Now this is the craziest shit I have ever heard of.
I borrowed this article from The SciGuy
SciGuy
A science blog with Eric Berger

Spain may soon say yes, making it the first country to extend rights to life and freedom to our closest genetic relatives.


I can has rightz?
Wow. It was only about two decades ago that Spain, a country deeply influenced by Catholicism, made divorce legal. And now this, for apes. You know, those with whom we share a common ancestor. The country has moved quickly after the pope accepted evolution, I guess. From the story linked above:

The new resolutions have cross-party or majority support and are expected to become law and the government is now committed to update the statute book within a year to outlaw harmful experiments on apes in Spain.

"We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain, but there is currently no law preventing that from happening," said Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Ape Project.

Keeping apes for circuses, television commercials or filming will also be forbidden and breaking the new laws will become an offence under Spain's penal code.


The initiative is being pushed by the Great Ape Project, which "seeks to end the unconscionable treatment of our nearest living relatives by obtaining for non-human great apes the fundamental moral and legal protections of the right to life, the freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and protection from torture."

Apes include chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans. No word on whether the measure will soon be extended to bullfighting.

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