An organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project (NHRP) filed several lawsuits in New York state courts last month asserting habeas corpus claims on behalf of several chimpanzees. The lawsuits basically asked the courts to grant limited human rights to four chimpanzees living in human captivity in the state. This is believed to be the first time a lawsuit has sought habeas protection for nonhumans.

According to the NHRP, one of the chimps, Tommy, is living in a cage on a used trailer lot. The owner of the trailer lot, Patrick Lavery, takes issue with that description, telling the Daily Beast that he has tried but has been unable to find a sanctuary for Tommy, and adding,

I’m not just some Joe Blow who’s got a chimp locked up in the garage. Of course, I think they should live in the wild, but the sad fact is that not all of them do and that’s where people like me come in, spending $100,000 of my own money to help out and buying monkey chow by the ton.

Another chimp, Kiko, is deaf and lives in a private home in Niagara Falls, according to the NHRP. The other two chimps, Hercules and Leo, are at a research center at Long Island’s Stony Brook University.

Through New York’s online court system, I identified three lawsuits filed in December 2013:

• Nonhuman Rights Project on behalf of Tommy v. Lavery, Index No. 002051/2013, Supreme Court of Fulton County, New York. Filed 12/02/2013, disposed 12/17/2013
• Nonhuman Rights Project on behalf of Kiko v. Presti, Index No. 151725/2013, Supreme Court of Niagara County, New York, Filed 12/03/2013, disposed 12/10/2013
• Nonhuman Rights Project on behalf of Hercules and Leo v. Stanley, Index No. 032098/2013, Supreme Court of Suffolk County, New York, Filed 12/05/2013, currently open

A judge dismissed Tommy’s case after an hour-long hearing on December 3, expressing sympathy for the cause but declining to extend legal personhood to a chimpanzee. In Kiko’s case, a judge denied the request for a order to show cause after a hearing by telephone on December 9, saying that the question of chimpanzee personhood is better resolved by the legislature than the courts. A Suffolk County judge denied the petition for Hercules and Leo without holding a hearing. The NHRP has announced that it will be appealing all three cases. Continue reading →