The Outdoor Patriot
December 05, 2013
An animal rights group called Nonhuman Rights Project has filed a writ of habeas corpus in New York, demanding a chimpanzee be characterized as a legal person with a right to liberty.
The chimpanzee named ‘Tommy’ is owned for by Patrick C. Lavery of Gloversville, N.Y. Lavery rescued Tommy from his previous home where he was badly treated.
But this has nothing to do with animal welfare in the normal sense. No one is claiming that Tommy is being abused.
According to the filing, the petition asks the court “to issue a writ recognizing that Tommy is not a legal thing to be possessed by respondents, but rather is a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned.”