A New York judge has granted two chimpanzees held at a research lab the same rights as human prisoners, after a two year legal battle by an animal rights organization.
The two primates, currently living in a.....
lab at Stony Brook University, are the first animals in history to be covered by a writ of habeas corpus, allowing their detention to be challenged.
A representative of the Long Island university have been ordered to appear in court to respond to a petition by the Nonhuman Rights Project that chimps Hercules and Leo are 'unlawfully detained.'
The decision by New York Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe effectively recognises the chimpanzees as legal humans, the American Association for the Advancement of Science reports.
The lawsuits were originally filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project in December 2013, in an attempt to free Hercules and Leo and two other chimpanzees living on private property.
Although the courts threw out the suits, the animal rights' group has been appealing ever since, and have now been granted the writ of habeas corpus on behalf of the Stony Brook chimpanzees.
A Stony Brook representative have been ordered to appear in court next month to respond the petition which argues that the chimps should be set free and moved to a sanctuary in Florida.
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