Great Ape personhood
Advocates of
Great Ape personhood consider
common chimpanzees,
bonobos,
gorillas, and
orangutans (the
hominid apes) to be
persons. They seek legal recognition of this status.
The best-known advocate is
Jane Goodall, appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of the
United Nations to fight the
bushmeat trade and end
ape extinction. Other well-known advocates are
Richard Dawkins and
Peter Singer.
Goodall's
longitudinal studies revealed the social and family life of chimps to be very similar to that of human beings in most respects. She herself calls them individuals, and says they relate to her as an individual member of the clan. Laboratory studies of ape language ability began to reveal other human traits, as did genetics, and eventually three of the great apes were reclassified as
hominids.
This, plus rising
ape extinction and the
animal-rights movement has put pressure on nations to recognize apes as having limited
rights and being legal "persons". In response, the
United Kingdom introduced a ban on research using
Great Apes, although testing on other non-human primates continues. [
1]
*
Ape*
Ape extinction*
Chantek*
Declaration on Great Apes*
Great Ape language*
Great Ape Project*
Hominoid*
Legal personhood*
List of apes - notable individual apes
*
Person*
Speciesism*
The Mind of an Ape*
Theory of mind*
Peter Singer,
Tom Regan,
Steven Best,
Richard D. Ryder*
Great Ape research ban*
Emotion in animals*
Great Apes Status of Personhood - G.R.A.S.P.*
The Great Ape Project*
Ban Ape Research*
Ending Chimpanzee Research Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Labs
