“ knocked our socks off in our own lab and other people’s labs in terms of what they can do,” said Edward Wasserman, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Iowa. One of the problems: Animals don’t stack up the way you’d expect. Because when it comes to measuring intelligence, we’re actually a little dumb. So, does a chimpanzee deserve more rights than, say, a pigeon? The logic that leads to “yes” is clear enough, but putting it into practice would be tough, scientists say.
The Nonhuman Rights Project, the nonprofit behind the habeas corpus lawsuit, has a stated goal of securing increased, human-like rights for great apes, elephants, dolphins and whales - highly intelligent, charismatic mammals. It’s just one judge, but you hear this kind of thing a lot from animal rights activists.
The case for giving the chimps a human right like freedom from unlawful incarceration is based on their similarity to humans - they can think, feel and plan, argue the people bringing the case on behalf of the chimpanzees, so shouldn’t they have some guarantees of liberty? The court declined to hear the case, but one judge did say that some highly intelligent animals probably should be treated more like people and less like property. A case bidding for consideration by the New York State Court of Appeals sought to extend the legal concept of habeas corpus - which allows a person to petition a court for freedom from unlawful imprisonment - to cover two privately-owned chimpanzees. If an animal is smart enough, should we treat it like a human? An abstract question, but one that found its way into a courtroom recently.
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