Spanish Parliament to Grant Great Apes Rights

On Wednesday, the Spanish Cortes took a major step toward granting basic legal protections to chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos. The environmental committee of the Cortes voted to recommend Spain adopt the principles of the Great Ape Project founded by philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri. Those principles are the “fundamental moral and legal protections of the right to life, the freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and protection from torture.”

According to the Great Ape Project’s website, “The idea is founded upon undeniable scientific proof that non-human great apes share more than genetically similar DNA with their human counterparts. They enjoy a rich emotional and cultural existence in which they experience emotions such as fear, anxiety and happiness. They share the intellectual capacity to create and use tools, learn and teach other languages. They remember their past and plan for their future. It is in recognition of these and other morally significant qualities that the Great Ape Project was founded.”

In March 2007, the assembly of the Balearic Islands, one of Spain’s autonomous regions, passed a resolution that incorporated these principles into local law. Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes Project, stated at that time, “the decision of the Balearic Government to approve this proposal, makes it a world-wide leader in the protection of the great apes and their habitat, as well as in the support of their rights.” The proposal then went to Madrid for consideration there.

The Cortes will likely pass the appropriate legislation shortly. As a result, keeping great apes of any species for use in a circus, TV commercials or filming will be illegal under Spanish law. The 315 great apes in Spanish zoos aren’t about to be released into the wild, since so many were born in captivity and probably couldn’t survive. However, about 70% of Spain’s zoos will have to upgrade their facilities to comply with the proposed standards. Moreover, experiments on great apes would also be banned.

Mr. Pozas told Reuters on Wednesday, “This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity.” Maybe “evolutionary comrades” has a better sound to it in Castilian Spanish, but in any case, the move is important in how mankind treat its nearest kin. After all, homo sapiens treat one another quite badly much of the time. Now, about those bullfights . . . .

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