Court won't declare chimp a person
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago
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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