Hiasl ‘recognizes himself in the mirror, plays hide-and-seek and breaks into fits of giggles when tickled.’ No, I’m not describing a human, but one of our closest evolutionary cousins.
He is a 26-year-old chimpanzee and deserves to be treated like a ‘human’! This is what the campaigners in Austria are seeking, taking the case to court.
And, once Hiasl is granted the status of a human, it would ditch the ‘species barrier’. And the rights that go with it – rather him –it will provide a victory signal for other primate species. Eventually, it would unleash a wave of similar cases.
In New Zealand, apes like gorillas, orang utans, chimpanzees and bonobos have been granted special rights as ‘non-human hominids’ in 1999. They are thus, granted with protection from maltreatment, slavery, torture, death and extinction.
Professor Volker Sommer, a renowned wild chimp expert at University College London and an evolutionary anthropologist, said,
It’s untenable to talk of dividing humans and humanoid apes because there are no clear-cut criteria – neither biological, nor mental, nor social.
Paula Stibbe, a British woman applying to be named Hiasl’s legal guardian said,
He is a colourful character with lots of energy. The least we can do for him is giving him … a future in society.