Spain’s parliament approved a measure to extend some human rights to gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans, becoming the first country to explicitly acknowledge the legal rights of nonhumans. The parliament’s environmental committee approved a resolution that commits the country to the Declaration on Great Apes, which states that nonhuman apes are entitled to the rights of life, liberty, and protection from torture. “This is a historic moment in the struggle for animal rights,” Pedro Pozas, the Spanish director of the Great Apes Project, told The Times. “It will doubtless be remembered as a key moment in the defence of our evolutionary comrades.” Once this measure becomes law in about a year, it will forbid keeping apes for circuses, television commercials or filming. Zoos that currently have apes can keep them but they must improve the conditions to comply with the new law.
Now all they need to do is ban bull fighting and extend these rights to bulls. Mr. Pozas said that the vote would set a precedent, establishing legal rights for animals that could be extended to other species. “We are seeking to break the species barrier — we are just the point of the spear,” he said.
Hopefully this action will indeed set a worldwide precedent and we can follow the wise words of Albert Einstein, “Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
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