Chimps have feelings and thoughts. They should also have rights

11 Jul 2015 • ted.com

Chimpanzees are people too, you know. Ok, not exactly. But lawyer Steven Wise has spent the last 30 years working to change these animals’ status from “things” to “persons.” It’s not a matter of legal semantics; as he describes in this fascinating talk, recognizing that animals like chimps have extraordinary cognitive capabilities and rethinking the way we treat them — legally — is no less than a moral duty.

This seems important to me. I think this will be the next big milestone once we’ve resolved basic human rights, gender equality, racism, LGBT acceptance, etc. We still have a long way to go on those things… but once we can treat people respectfully, as people, without dispute… then we can then start finding additional “persons” that we’ve been neglecting and abusing for years without even thinking twice.

Please watch this.