Quick Dips

Partial Victory for
Great Ape Project

The Great Ape Project (New Zealand) is claiming a partial victory in its campaign for special legal status for gorillas, orang-utans and chimpanzees, whom scientists say are as intelligent as young children [GIGO, June 1998].

As a result of its submissions, the Select Committee on Primary Production is recommending that experiments on great apes be banned in the new Animal Welfare Bill, except where the experiment is in the best interests of the individual ape or its species.

"It will rattle a few cages in the United States," says the project's information officer, Rowan Taylor. "It sends a clear message that the great apes are different from other animals and, like children, should not be treated as laboratory subjects."

The campaigners believe the bill would send an even stronger message if it also banned the killing of great apes. Including this with the anti-experimentation requirement would be a world-first.

"If it's wrong to experiment on great apes, then it's also wrong to kill them."