Saving Mr Chimp

[00:00.11] Should animals be entitled to the same rights as people? The question is not so outlandish.

[00:06.87] A judge in the US once suggested that chimpanzees had the right to habeas corpus.

[00:12.38] Judge Barbara Jaffe was ruling on the case of Leo and Hercules.

[00:16.64] These two primates have their own lawyers arguing that they should be moved from a university lab to an animal sanctuary.

[00:24.16] She did change her mind after a while.

[00:27.42] Animals have always intrigued us.

[00:29.92] Some people find them very intelligent and capable of friendship, jealousy and longing.

[00:34.93] That's enough to give them rights, isn't it? Not for people like Professor Carl Cohen of the University of Michigan.

[00:41.45] He says that rights are a concept special to the human moral code. And animals don't know anything about right and wrong.

[00:49.22] The academic points out: "Animals do not commit crimes; animals are not attacked for their moral views."

[00:55.74] In any case, humans have become more sensitive to animal suffering throughout the years.

[01:00.50] In 1999, New Zealand granted basic rights to five great ape species.

[01:06.01] Their use in research, testing or teaching was banned in a move seen as the greatest legal success in animal rights history.

[01:14.78] In 2002, in an unprecedented move in the European Union, Germany granted some rights to animals in its constitution.

[01:23.30] The ambiguous relationship between people and animals can be perceived in language.

[01:28.81] In English the pronoun used for an animal is 'it'. But many people refer to their pets as 'he' or 'she'.

[01:35.33] It makes them more of an equal to us.

[01:38.58] What do you think? Should animals have rights similar to humans?