Animal Rights Activists Fight To Have Chimp Declared A Person
Pan
VIENNA, Austria - Animal rights activists campaigning to get Pan, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, legally declared a person vowed Thursday to take their challenge to Austria’s Supreme Court after a lower court threw out their latest appeal.
A provincial judge in the city of Wiener Neustadt dismissed the case earlier this week, ruling that the Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories had no legal standing to argue on the chimp’s behalf.
The association has been pressing to get Pan declared a “person” so a guardian can be appointed to look out for his interests.
Group president Martin Balluch insists that Pan is “a being with interests” and accuses the Austrian judicial system of monkeying around.
“It is astounding how all the courts try to evade the question of personhood of a chimp as much as they can,” Balluch said.
A hearing date for the Supreme Court appeal was not immediately set.
The legal tussle began in February, when the animal shelter where Pan and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years filed for bankruptcy protection. This means the chimp might be sold to a zoo outside of the country.
Activists want to ensure the apes don’t wind up somewhere not as nice as Austria if the shelter closes. Both were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled in a crate to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter.
Their upkeep costs about euro4,800 (US$6,800) a month. Donors have offered to help, but there’s a catch: Under Austrian law, only a person can receive financial gifts.
Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Pan, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But they contend that only personhood will give him the basic rights he needs to ensure he isn’t sold to someone outside Austria, where he’s now protected by extremely strict animal protection laws.
In April, a district court judge rejected a British woman’s petition to be declared Pan’s legal guardian. That court ruled that the chimp was neither mentally impaired nor in danger, the grounds required for an individual to be appointed a guardian.
In dismissing the Association Against Animal Factories’ appeal this week, the provincial court said only a guardian could appeal. That doesn’t apply in this case, the group contends, since Pan hasn’t gained a guardian.
(AP)
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This is quite silly but not as silly as a general movement to give human rights to animals. It’s a legal complication. They don’t want the chimp to get sold off and harmed but there is no way to donate the money because it’s not a person.
It’s a tough situation because from glancing at the title I immediately thought, what a bunch of idiot liberal nuts. But they’re trying to protect an animal in whatever way they can because they can’t do it any other way.
September 30th, 2007 at 12:25 amPETA-types are oxygen robbers. Still, he does sorta look like Alan Greenspan.
September 30th, 2007 at 12:31 amI think he should be reunited with his brother, Ahmadinejad. They would make such nice playmates together! Pan and Mookie.. aaaaah!
September 30th, 2007 at 12:56 amIt’s things like fools trying to get an animal declared a person (even though it may be for an outwordly good cause) that get the “camel’s nose in the tent” for a lot worse things. If animals are declared people, that means putting your dog to sleep or even taking it out to the woods and putting it out of its misery with your trusty firearm could get you life in prison. Deer hunting might even be banned, or hunting of any kind. There is no limit to the lunacy if this ever gets traction. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I’ve read something like this.
September 30th, 2007 at 4:13 amThis is complete lunacy. These animal-fuckers will stop at nothing to blur the lines of common sense. Maybe if PETA would quit smoking dope for awhile, they’d see the forest for the trees.
Why am I also reminded of that South Park episode of PETA.
Did they get this thing right or what?
PETA can do the tree-hugging Buddist thing all they want. But they need to stop pushing their philosophy off on the rest of us.
September 30th, 2007 at 7:49 amTake a moment and see what Colonel Robert Neville thinks about the way things are going:
“The Invasion Of The Body Politic Snatchers”
http://colonelrobertneville.blogspot.com/2007/09/invasion-of-body-politic-snatchers.html
September 30th, 2007 at 7:52 amWhy do suspect Soros/Clinton influence here?
Because chimpeople are expected to vote D’rat for the inevitable handouts.
Liberalism is a mental disorder!
September 30th, 2007 at 8:41 amClyde Conneer
“Because chimpeople are expected to vote D’rat for the inevitable handouts.
Liberalism is a mental disorder!”
But Clyde they have to protect their future constituents to keep the hijacked Dem party viable!
Yes, PETA people are the biggest nutbags of all the environmentalists. I find them frightening. The group are also guilty of many crimes and slaughter of animals by their own members. nuf said.
September 30th, 2007 at 9:32 amOkay, declare the chimp a human …
But only if Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews are declared shit-eating, shit-producing dung beetles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbl6Q4DCSu0
September 30th, 2007 at 9:39 amI clicked on this linking thinking for sure that this was a story about leftists…
September 30th, 2007 at 11:07 amPossibly related to evolution teaching. Thats really some bad bs.
This may be of interest as well:
1. http://www.drdino.com/downloads.php?type=Seminar+Video
September 30th, 2007 at 11:32 am2. www.creationscience.com
Okay, I don’t torture puppies or anything, but WTF is the world coming to? What I find interesting is how most PETA people give rights to aminals more freely than they do to humans. Here’s an idea…. Why don’t these people fighting for this chimp’s “status” step up and care for the chimp themselves?
Honestly, I love animals…. they taste fabulous!
September 30th, 2007 at 12:02 pmUnder Austrian law, only a person can receive financial gifts.
that’s the dilemn
the animals rights activists should apply for an european court judgement ; this is the recourse we have when one country judgement is not competent ;
anyway to qualify a monkey as human is weird ;
but the monkey deserves being guaranted of good cares ; whatever the ways, I would try anything for him too ; doing so, it’s not being silly or leftist but just normal intelligent human
September 30th, 2007 at 12:12 pmJust to be fair, can we also declare Harry Reid to be a chimp?
September 30th, 2007 at 12:20 pmHi,
They really have their priority’s messed up…
You think they would be working on getting Al Gore, John Edwards, ‘rosie’, hillary, etc….officially declared ‘people’ first, before they try and do it with this Monkey ‘Pan’!
I wonder what they don’t understand about the word ‘monkey’.
Too Much!
Peace!
September 30th, 2007 at 12:34 pmDan2
That nice juicy hamburger is looking pretty damn good right now. Might go ahead and cook that steak later, then after that I’m gonna barbecue some ribs.
September 30th, 2007 at 1:03 pmI advocate that PETA members be classified as meat on a stick as a viable source of sustinence for us meat eaters!
September 30th, 2007 at 6:39 pmI couldn’t give a shit…Personally I have no beef with the animal rights like the spca (peta has been caught euthanizing hordes of domestic animals)…I have an issue with domestic animals being abandoned.
“Under Austrian law, only a person can receive financial gifts.”
Change the f*cking law to person and/or care giver, case closed.
September 30th, 2007 at 10:19 pmGetting Pan rights is a very reasonable position. It means giving him basic body integrity (i.e. someone can’t beat him). It has nothing to do with the snowball fallacy of where will it end. Chimpanzees are our closest ancestors and many know sign language and can communicate their most basic needs.
Dogs and cats have some of these basic protections. It is the word ‘rights’ that gets people bent out of shape. The only rights being looked at for Pan would be the same rights that children have, so no need for the right to vote. Just the simple fact of someone looking out for his best interests.
BTW Far worse stuff goes on in factory farms than with hunting. Check out www.meat.org too!
October 1st, 2007 at 7:16 am