Spain to Grant Legal Rights to Great Apes June 30, 2008

Posted by Marta at June 30, 2008 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 6 ) | TrackBack

Los animals no son nuestros para comer, llevar, experimentar, o usar para diversión!

Any Spanish speakers in the house? If so, please join me in a huge round of felicitaciones for our friends over in Spain. No, not for their big Euro 08 soccer win, although that was pretty sweet too. The Spanish Parliament have begun the process of passing groundbreaking legislation granting great apes the rights to life and freedom. Read that sentence again. Great apes. The right to life and freedom. I know. It's incredible.

Susanad813 / Creative Commons
It'll be a while before the law passes, but once it does, it means that it'll be illegal to perform harmful experiments on great apes in Spain, as well as use them in circuses or movies & television. In Germany, the basic rights of animals have been guaranteed by the federal constitution since 2002, but this new law in Spain marks the first time specific rights have been granted to individual non-human animals.

For a country where some people still get their kicks by forcing pissed-off bulls to chase them around town, this is a pretty amazing step forward. The world is changing as we speak, people. Viva la revolución!

—Dan