Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes

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This is fantastic news - now if they can abolish BULL FIGHTING ..............................

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL256586320080625Spanish parliament to extend rights to apesWed Jun 25, 2008 4:27pm EDTBy Martin RobertsMADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament voiced its support on Wednesdayfor the rights of great apes to life and freedom in what will apparentlybe the first time any national legislature has called for such rightsfor non-humans.Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spainto comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists andphilosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rightshitherto limited to humans."This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defenseof our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in thehistory of humanity," said Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the GreatApes Project.Spain may be better known abroad for bull-fighting than animal rightsbut the new measures are the latest move turning once-conservative Spaininto a liberal trailblazer.Spain did not legalize divorce until the 1980s, but Prime Minister JoseLuis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government has legalized gaymarriage, reduced the influence of the Catholic Church in education andset up an Equality Ministry.The new resolutions have cross-party or majority support and areexpected to become law and the government is now committed to update thestatute book within a year to outlaw harmful experiments on apes inSpain."We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain,but there is currently no law preventing that from happening," Pozassaid.Keeping apes for circuses, television commercials or filming will alsobe forbidden and breaking the new laws will become an offence underSpain's penal code.Keeping an estimated 315 apes in Spanish zoos will not be illegal, butsupporters of the bill say conditions will need to improve drasticallyin 70 percent of establishments to comply with the new law.Philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri founded the Great ApeProject in 1993, arguing that "non-human hominids" like chimpanzees,gorillas, orang-utans and bonobos should enjoy the right to life,freedom and not to be tortured._____________

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