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from the Better-the-Chimp-than-Corporations dept.
From the article, paraphrased:
When Steven Wise, a 63-year-old legal scholar in the field of animal law, decided to poke around Circle L Trailer Sales to assess the living conditions of the Reindeer living on the company grounds, he was horrified to discover that a former circus chimpanzee named Tommy was forced to live in inhumane conditions:
A rancid milk-musk odor wafted forth and with it the sight of an adult chimpanzee, crouched inside a small steel-mesh cell. Some plastic toys and bits of soiled bedding were strewn behind him. The only visible light emanated from a small portable TV on a stand outside his bars, tuned to what appeared to be a nature show.
Being sufficiently moved by witnessing that heinous crime, Wise and a few cohorts strolled into the Fulton County Courthouse wielding a legal document the likes of which had never been seen in any of the world's courts, a legal package including a detailed account of the "petitioner's" cruel and unusual solitary confinement along with nine affidavits gathered from leading primatologists, underscoring the physical and psychological damages such living conditions endured by a being with such cognitive capability. Tommy would not, however, have anticipated that he was about to make legal history as the first nonhuman primate to ever sue a human captor in an attempt to gain his own freedom.
Granting rights associated with personhood to non-persons has been discussed extensively before, but would be giving personhood to animals be a dangerous slippery-slope? Would be the mark of a more humane and mature society?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by IndigoFreak on Monday April 28 2014, @03:33PM
From what I understand they have the mental abilities of 5 year olds. 5 year olds cannot sue. I'm sure someone could sue on their behalf, but even then you still have a child that can speak and voice their own opinion(however low value that opinion is due to lack of understanding). An animal, even the most intelligent, can't begin to even comprehend the system or society, and never will. At least a child will begin to understand consequences. Does a monkey know about life ruining debt? Life in prison? What does it do with the money once it gets it? If a child sues then that money is most likely put into a trust until they are an adult. Or an adult is put in charge of it. Do we give the money to a lawyer? If the monkey is a millionaire after the suit do we go with adequate accommodations or should we put him up in a million dollar mansion?
Can animals then sue animals? Who can and can't bring a lawsuit from an animal? If animals can sue can we still kill them?
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Monday April 28 2014, @04:24PM
"Life in prison?"
Hmmm, *looks at cages*
(Score:1^½, Radical)