A New York state appeals court ruled a month ago that a chimpanzee, Tommy, does not have legal rights and cannot be emancipated from confinement. This month, the same ruling was returned for a chimp named Kiko, according to Reuters via Scientific American.
In 2013, attorney and animal rights activist Steven Wise filed a writ of habeas corpus, a challenge to illegal detainment, on behalf of Kiko. Wise says that Kiko suffered abuse during the making of a Tarzan film and is now deaf as a result, according to Reuters. Wise also asserts that Kiko is owned by a primate expert named Carmen Presti and lives in chains in a cement cage in Niagara Falls.
Wise, founder of The Nonhuman Rights Project, asked the court in Rochester to allow Kiko to live in a sanctuary in Florida, stating that chimps are autonomous creatures and not suited for solitary confinement, according to Reuters.
On Friday, the appeals court denied the request saying that since only the terms of confinement would be changed (there would not be an act of liberation), habeas corpus is inappropriate, according to Reuters.
"For 200 years, New York courts have used (habeas corpus) to move an individual from a place of less freedom to more freedom," The Nonhuman Rights Project said, according to Reuters.
While Kiko and Tommy have not been granted nonhuman rights, an orangutan named Sandra was granted status of "non-human person" by an Argentinean court.
Kiko's case is Nonhuman Rights Project v. Presti, New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department, No. 14-357.
