Orangutans Are People Too

                “Orangutans are people, too” gushed the Associated Press headline (dateline Buenos Aires)!

                This was triggered by an Argentine court’s ruling that an orangutan that has lived 20 years at the Buenos Aires zoo is ‘entitled’ to some legal rights enjoyed by humans, including liberty from confinement.

                ‘Sandra’, the 29 year-old orangutan in question, was unavailable for comment.

                Apparently, that wasn’t an anomaly. Florida attorney Steven Wise of the “Nonhuman Rights Project” recently argued before a New York State appeals court that ‘Tommy the Chimp’ is a person, entitled (there’s that word again) to basic rights, including  freedom from imprisonment. Tommy is a ‘retired’ circus chimp currently living happily with his owner in Gloversville, N.Y.

In a cage complete with a stereo and cable television.

Mr. Wise would like Tommy and other chimps to be able to spend their retirement in a Florida sanctuary.

There is a Chimp Liberation Movement underway. I’m sure there will be a suffrage movement on their behalf soon, although they’d probably be able to vote in most precincts now, since no driver’s license or identification is required.

If liberals believe chimps and orangutans are their equals, I’m okay with that.

But when they believe that monkeys are humans and unborn babies are not…well, that’s when I ‘go ape.’

They  may  ‘liberate’  babies from the ‘prison’ of their mother’s wombs, but only after they kill them.

Unlike Sandra and Tommy, they won’t get the chance to retire in Florida…or live anywhere.