But will they demand welfare benefits?


From the Spain Herald

Socialists: Give apes human rights

Spain Herald

The Spanish Socialist Party will introduce a bill in the Congress of Deputies calling for "the immediate inclusion of (simians) in the category of persons, and that they be given the moral and legal protection that currently are only enjoyed by human beings." The PSOE's justification is that humans share 98.4% of our genes with chimpanzees, 97.7% with gorillas, and 96.4% with orangutans.

The party will announce its Great Ape Project at a press conference tomorrow. An organization with the same name is seeking a UN declaration on simian rights which would defend ape interests "the same as those of minors and the mentally handicapped of our species."

According to the Project, "Today only members of the species Homo sapiens are considered part of the community of equals. The chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orangutan are our species's closest relatives. They possess sufficient mental faculties and emotional life to justify their inclusion in the community of equals."

I wonder what the cutoff in percent DNA similarity should be for a truly just society? We share about 95% of our DNA with dogs and mice. I think worms are close to 75% similar to humans and even plants approach 50%. And, given the way socialist governments have treated the mentally handicapped in the past, I'm not sure this is such a wonderful thing for the apes.