Spain's Parliament Supports Right of Great Apes to Life & Freedom
"This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in
defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in
the history of humanity."
Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes Project.
Spain's parliament voiced its support on Wednesday for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in what will apparently be the first time any national legislature has called for such rights for non-humans -the new measures are the latest move turning once-conservative Spain into a liberal trailblazer.
Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans. Philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri founded the Great Ape Project in 1993, arguing that "non-human hominids" like chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos should enjoy the right to life, freedom and not to be tortured.
Spain did not legalize divorce until the 1980s, but Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government has legalized gay marriage, reduced the influence of the Catholic Church in education and set up an Equality Ministry.
The new resolutions have cross-party or majority support and are expected to become law and the government is now committed to update the statute book within a year to outlaw harmful experiments on apes in Spain.
"We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain, but there is currently no law preventing that from happening," Pozas said.
Keeping apes for circuses, television commercials or filming will also be forbidden and breaking the new laws will become an offence under Spain's penal code.
Keeping an estimated 315 apes in Spanish zoos will not be illegal, but supporters of the bill say conditions will need to improve drastically in 70 percent of establishments to comply with the new law.
Posted by Jason McManus.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080625/sc_nm/spain_apes_dc
We congratulate Spain for its truthful and courageous policy.
As the following quote from a recent Daily Galaxy suggests, the Cetacea clearly qualify for similar rights and recognition.
"The Hawaii based Sirius Institute, known for sending live humpback whale songs into deep space, says their primary goal is for the reestablishment of interspecies communications with the biggest, most complex brains on the planet.
One of their projects is an interspecies birth cohort, a group of children who would be birthed with dolphins and raised somewhat together in order to study the development of communications between the close-knit groups.
These open-minded Cetacea advocates point out that like humans, the Cetaceans transmit information culturally across generations, have the largest brains, and are the longest lived of all species. They would like humans to officially recognize the order Cetacea as a “people”.
They believe that step is necessary for their preservations, as was historically necessary to stop genocide of humans. One example is the Australian aboriginal people, who were legally classed as “game animals” until 1967 when they won their “rights as human beings” in a court action."(See the link: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/06/cetacea-mind-be.html#moreJune 26, 2007
Cetacea: Mind-Bending Theories About the Planet's “Other” Intelligent Life)
We of the Sirius Institute are establishing recognition and rights for the Cetacea through the Cetacean Commonwealth , comprising the Cetacea and the Humans that support them.
See more at www.planetpuna.com
Mahalo nui loa for your leading edge and insightful newsletter.
Michael Hyson Research Director
Star Newland Founding Partner
Sirius Institute
Puna , Hawai'I
Captain Cook, Hawai’I
Posted by: Michael Hyson & Star Newland | July 01, 2008 at 04:12 AM
We congratulate Spain for its truthful and courageous policy.
As the following quote from a recent Daily Galaxy suggests, the Cetacea clearly qualify for similar rights and recognition.
"The Hawaii based Sirius Institute, known for sending live humpback whale songs into deep space, says their primary goal is for the reestablishment of interspecies communications with the biggest, most complex brains on the planet.
One of their projects is an interspecies birth cohort, a group of children who would be birthed with dolphins and raised somewhat together in order to study the development of communications between the close-knit groups.
These open-minded Cetacea advocates point out that like humans, the Cetaceans transmit information culturally across generations, have the largest brains, and are the longest lived of all species. They would like humans to officially recognize the order Cetacea as a “people”.
They believe that step is necessary for their preservations, as was historically necessary to stop genocide of humans. One example is the Australian aboriginal people, who were legally classed as “game animals” until 1967 when they won their “rights as human beings” in a court action."(See the link: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/06/cetacea-mind-be.html#moreJune 26, 2007
Cetacea: Mind-Bending Theories About the Planet's “Other” Intelligent Life)
We of the Sirius Institute are establishing recognition and rights for the Cetacea through the Cetacean Commonwealth , comprising the Cetacea and the Humans that support them.
See more at www.planetpuna.com
Mahalo nui loa for your leading edge and insightful newsletter.
Michael Hyson Research Director
Star Newland Founding Partner
Sirius Institute
Puna , Hawai'I
Captain Cook, Hawai’I
Posted by: Michael Hyson & Star Newland | July 01, 2008 at 04:13 AM
There is a difference between trailblazer and nutjob. Spain falls squarely into the NUTJOB zone.
Posted by: Fred X | July 01, 2008 at 02:38 PM