James Gorman at the New York Times writes:

The Nonhuman Rights Project, led by Steven M. Wise, filed papers on Monday in State Supreme Court in Fulton County, N.Y., demanding that courts in New York recognize a chimpanzee known as Tommy as a legal person, with a limited right to liberty. The petition asks the court to remove him from his owners and place him in a sanctuary.

Tommy is a privately owned chimp in Gloversville that the group says “is being held captive in a cage in a shed at a used-trailer lot.” The group said it intended to file suit later this week on behalf of three more chimps in New York, also demanding their freedom.

I'm really curious to see where this story goes. Animal rights are a subject that's going to get a lot of play over the next few decades, and I'm sure that at some point in the future, people will look back at the barbarism of our time with wonder and more than a little disgust. (I say this as a carnivore who is well aware of his own hypocrisy.) But I'm not sure that now is the time for that fight to begin. We still draw a firm line between animals and humans, despite all the mounting evidence that animals experience emotions and communication. I can't see a judge granting this request.

And what does Slog think about this?