Yesterday, a New York state appeals court rejected an appeal filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) seeking legal rights for a pair of captive chimpanzees. It’s a major setback for the group, but the battle to secure human-like legal protections for highly intelligent and self-aware animals is far from over.
Brian Kateman, like many once-vegetarians, wasn’t perfect. But he wasn’t trying to be. One Thanksgiving during his college years, Kateman recalls reaching for a piece of turkey, which he permitted himself because of the special occasion. His older sister, predictably, started making fun of him.
“They used to bark at me when I walked into the courtroom,” lawyer Steven Wise said in the Sundance documentary Unlocking the Cage, which debuted on HBO last month. His use of the word “bark” is literal.
In what’s becoming a trend, the Trump administration is walking back another one of its controversial actions following extensive outrage from the public. This time, the USDA has begun reposting deleted documents to its publicly available database of inspection reports on facilities that use animals. But animal…
The backlash has been vicious since zookeepers killed a gorilla named Harambe in order to protect a boy who fell into its enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. Now, police are investigating the parents in a misguided effort to administer blame, but one thing is more clear than ever: Zoos are awful places for animals to…
The U.S. Navy has agreed to set aside vast swaths of ocean territory off the shores of Hawaii and Southern California in an effort to protect sound-sensitive marine mammals from the effects of sonar and powerful explosives used in military exercises.
Since the 9/11 attacks, researchers in the United States have conducted exceptionally cruel, even superfluous, experiments on animals to develop countermeasures to weapons of mass destruction. But as BuzzFeed reporter Peter Aldhous asks: Is all this suffering really necessary?
The Jane Goodall Institute, in collaboration with other animal welfare groups, has successfully petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare a new rule under which all chimpanzees—both wild and captive—must be protected as an endangered species.
Earlier today, a NYC judge heard arguments on the rights of two chimps being used for science experiments. During the two-hours of proceedings, the president of the Nonhuman Rights Projects described the chimps as “autonomous and self-determining beings.” A decision on their fate is expected in one to two months. More …
Earlier this month, a change was made to New Zealand’s Animal Welfare Amendment Bill stating that animals — like humans — are “sentient” beings.
For the first time in U.S. history, a supreme court has granted a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of two lab chimpanzees, effectively recognizing them as legal persons. While the future of the chimps has not yet been decided, it’s a huge step forward in establishing personhood status for highly sapient animals.
The costumes are coming off, the shackles are being unlocked, and the boxcars are opening. After more than 130 years, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus will retire its elephants. It's an important step — but animals need legal rights, and not just laws that treat them like things.
The human brain is special. Just not that special. To understand animal minds, and our own place in the living world, we should remove ourselves from centre stage.
What's the difference between "Cage Free," "Farm Fresh," and "Free Range"?
History was made this past weekend in Buenos Aires when an appeals court ruled that an orangutan held in a zoo is a nonhuman person unlawfully deprived of its right to bodily autonomy.
Recently, when consoling a boy whose dog had died, Pope Francis publicly stated that "paradise is open to all of God's creatures." Despite the ambiguousness of the statement, many animal lovers and rights groups have interpreted it as a repudiation of Catholic theology stating animals don't have souls.
Yesterday, a New York appeals court rejected a lawsuit filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project seeking legal rights for Tommy, a 26-year-old chimp kept alone in a warehouse. Here's why the judges were wrong — and why that's actually good news in the struggle to recognize nonhuman animal personhood.
The United States prides itself on being a country of animal lovers. But when it comes to the ethical treatment of lab animals, few countries perform worse. Here's how the U.S. practices measure up to the rest of the world. [UPDATE: io9 has editorial concerns with this article.]
Chimps who are removed from their mothers early in life and raised by humans as pets or performers are more likely to develop behavioral and social problems, according to new research.
The Oregon Supreme Court has passed a ruling that recognizes animals as more than property, to be treated (or mistreated) as their owners see fit. The ruling establishes that animals can be regarded as legal victims, which should afford them greater protection from abuse.
