First-Ever Lawsuit Filed for Chimpanzee Personhood

Dear Friends of the Nonhuman Rights Project, 

This morning, the Nonhuman Rights Project filed suit in Fulton County Court in the state of New York on behalf of Tommy, a chimpanzee, who is being held captive in a cage in a shed at a used trailer lot in Gloversville. 

This is, in fact, just the first of three suits we are filing this week. The second will be filed on Tuesday in Niagara Falls on behalf of Kiko, a chimpanzee who is deaf and living in a private home. And the third will be filed on Thursday on behalf of Hercules and Leo, who are owned by a research center and are being used in locomotion experiments at Stony Brook University on Long Island. 

You can read all the details on the website, including what led to the decision to file three suits rather than just one. There's also a complete library of documents filed with the court in the case of Tommy. And similar documents will be available for Kiko, Hercules and Leo later in the week. 

This is just the start of what is likely to be an extended set of proceedings over weeks and possibly months to come. We'll send you regular updates in e-mail, including any initial responses from the judges at each county court. For up-to-the-minute developments, please check our Facebook page and Twitter feed. 

Thank you for making this ground-breaking effort possible. Your donations greatly help our efforts to establish personhood for nonhuman animals. 

http://www.nonhumanrights.org/