WILL THEY APE HUMAN BEHAVIOR?

I mentioned a few entries back that maybe we human animals might want to start thinking about our animal cousins in a different way, and, it seems, the Spaniards are doing just that—at least about some of our animal cousins. The following information is from the venerable New York Times:

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…the environment committee of the Spanish Parliament last month [voted] to grant limited rights to our closest biological relatives, the great apes — chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans.

The committee would bind Spain to the principles of the Great Ape Project, which points to apes’ human qualities, including the ability to feel fear and happiness, create tools, use languages, remember the past and plan the future. The project’s directors, Peter Singer, the Princeton ethicist, and Paola Cavalieri, an Italian philosopher, regard apes as part of a “community of equals” with humans.

If the bill passes — the news agency Reuters predicts it will — it would become illegal in Spain to kill apes except in self-defense. Torture, including in medical experiments, and arbitrary imprisonment, including for circuses or films, would be forbidden.

The 300 apes in Spanish zoos would not be freed, but better conditions would be mandated.
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