Hi peoplez !
Welcum to another exciting instalment of "What the ............. ?!?!"
These Austrians are crazy !!!
By this reasoning, should we declare Dumbo George to be a
chimpanzee ?!?!? ;-)
HOOROO
UNCLE WALLY
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070927/ap_on_fe_st/chimp_challenge;_ylt=AnUZbvAn2M0Lk.08SeSwWk.s0NUE
Court won't declare chimp a person
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer
Thu Sep 27, 4:12 PM ET
He's now got a human name - Matthew Hiasl Pan - but he's having
trouble getting his day in court. Animal rights activists campaigning
to get Pan, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, legally declared a person vowed
Thursday to take their challenge to Austria's Supreme Court after a
lower court threw out their latest appeal.
A provincial judge in the city of Wiener Neustadt dismissed the case
earlier this week, ruling that the Vienna-based Association Against
Animal Factories had no legal standing to argue on the chimp's behalf.
The association, which worries the shelter caring for the chimp might
close, has been pressing to get Pan declared a "person" so a guardian
can be appointed to look out for his interests and provide him with a
home.
Group president Martin Balluch insists that Pan is "a being with
interests" and accuses the Austrian judicial system of monkeying
around.
"It is astounding how all the courts try to evade the question of
personhood of a chimp as much as they can," Balluch said.
A hearing date for the Supreme Court appeal was not immediately set.
The legal tussle began in February, when the animal shelter where Pan
and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years filed for bankruptcy
protection.
Activists want to ensure the apes don't wind up homeless if the
shelter closes. Both were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982
and smuggled in a crate to Austria for use in pharmaceutical
experiments. Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the
chimps over to the shelter.
Their upkeep costs about euro4,800 (US$6,800) a month. Donors have
offered to help, but there's a catch: Under Austrian law, only a
person can receive personal gifts.
Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Pan, whose
life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But they contend that
only personhood will give him the basic rights he needs to ensure he
isn't sold to someone outside Austria, where he's now protected by
strict animal cruelty laws.
In April, a district court judge rejected a British woman's petition
to be declared Pan's legal guardian. That court ruled that the chimp
was neither mentally impaired nor in danger, the grounds required for
an individual to be appointed a guardian.
In dismissing the Association Against Animal Factories' appeal this
week, the provincial court said only a guardian could appeal. That
doesn't apply in this case, the group contends, since Pan hasn't
gained a guardian.
There is legal precedence in Austria for close friends to represent
people who have no immediate family, "so he should be represented by
his closest friends, as is the case," said Eberhart Theuer, the
group's legal adviser.
"On these grounds we have appealed this decision to the Supreme Court
in Vienna," he said.
Until this summer, the chimp was known simply as Hiasl. However, in
the latest court documents, he was identified with a little more
dignity - if not humanity - as Matthew Hiasl Pan, with the last name
derived from "chimpanzee."
The Association Against Animal Factories points out that it's not
trying to get Pan declared a human, but rather a person, which would
give him some kind of legal status.
Otherwise, he is legally a thing. And with the genetic makeup of
chimpanzees and humans so strikingly similar, it contends, that just
can't be.
"The question is: Are chimps things without interests, or persons with
interests?" Balluch said.
"A large section of the public does see chimps as beings with
interests," he said. "We are looking forward to hear what the high
court has to say on this fundamental question."
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