Socialists petition Spanish congress to recognize ‘human rights’ of apes

Madrid, Spain, Apr 24, 2006 / 22:00 pm

In response to reports that Socialists in Spain have asked the congress in that country to include apes in the category of persons, Archbishop Fernando Sebastian of Pamplona said such attempts to be “progressive” were “ridiculous” and that calling for human rights for apes was like calling for humans to be granted the rights of bulls.

Archbishop Sebastian also criticized the government for “not granting the rights of persons to the unborn” and instead “giving them to monkeys.”  “This society is either ridiculous or disjointed,” he said.

The leaders behind the movement plan to inform lawmakers about the current situation of apes at zoos and circuses in the country and will ask them to support their campaign demanding such animals be granted “the moral and legal protection that currently only human beings enjoy.”

Last September, Representative Francisco Garrido of the Socialist party applauded two scientific studies which “appeared, almost simultaneously, in order to remind us of the evolutionary proximity and genetic similarity we have with our relatives, the great apes.”

“Monkeys should be granted the rights of apes,” Archbishop Sebastian continued, “but not human rights, as that would be like saying humans should be granted the rights of bulls. I don’t get it,” he said.