Sometimes you need a chimpanzee to move the law forward

Traditionally, the law has treated animals as personal property. In other words, your dog is no different to you than one of your chairs. There have been slight modifications — animal cruelty laws, most notably — but for most purposes your dog is no more than chattel. From the New Yorker — ironically enough in an article about Leona Helmsley and her dog, to whom she left $12 million in trust — comes the story of how the growing field of animal rights began.

It all started with Washoe, the first chimpanzee to learn sign language to communicate with humans. When there came a time Washoe was going to be sent off for animal testing, Victoria Bjorklund, a lawyer, wanted to set up a trust and appoint a guardian for Washoe. The problem was that New York law only permitted the appointment of guardians for a “person with a disability.” As the New Yorker explains:

[Bjorklund and her colleagues] argued that “the mental, emotional, sociological, and biological characteristics” of Washoe and the other chimps “warrant their treatment as persons” entitled to representation. The lawyers submitted affidavits from such animal experts as Jane Goodall, who said that “chimpanzees are biochemically closer to humans than they are to any other of the great apes.” According to the brief in the case, the chimps “are capable of rational thought, communication, and other higher cognitive functions,” justifying their treatment as the legal equivalent of minors or disabled humans. In a 1997 decision, the surrogate of Nassau County agreed and appointed a guardian to administer the trust for the benefit of the chimps. “That trust was then respected by the State of Washington, where Washoe lived,” Bjorklund said. “We think it was the first trust ever established for the benefit of specific nonhuman primates.”