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[Josh Greenman <josh.greenman AT gmail.com>]

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/are-zoos-prisons-habeas-corpus-filed-for-chimp.php

Are Zoos Prisons? Habeas Corpus Filed for Chimp
by Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Jimmy is a 26 year old chimpanzee who has spent several years alone in
a cage, where he's on exhibit at a zoo in Niterói, Brazil, just
outside of Rio de Janeiro. Just last week, animal protection groups
filed a motion to have Jimmy released on grounds of Habeas Corpus,
arguing that he is being denied his rights to freedom of movement and
to a decent life, in Rio's Criminal Court. If the appeal is accepted
and Jimmy is allowed to go free, it will not be the first time such a
legal maneuver is successful, however. Slowly, courts around the
country are beginning to consider chimpanzees like Jimmy a legal
'party' with rights and not merely objects.

The argument put forth by the Great Ape Project and other prosecutors
and lawyers on behalf of Jimmy is grounded in Brazil's Constitution
which states:

    The right to habeas corpus is granted whenever someone suffers or
feels threatened by violence or coercion in their freedom of movement
by illegality or abuse of power.

In 2005, another captive chimpanzee in the country was supposed to be
released when a similar petition was filed in Bahia. Brazilian
prosecutor Heron Santana led the case which has become a global
standard. Together with professors and law students associations and
animal rights, he filed a Habeas Corpus in favor of a 23 year old
chimpanzee named Switzerland, who was in zoo for 4 years, according to
a report in Jornal a Tribuna.

Sadly, the day after the ruling was delivered granting Switzerland her
freedom, she was found dead in her cage.

Because of the precedent set in Switzerland's case, animal rights
groups are hopeful that Jimmy will be granted his freedom as well.
There's no telling, though, whether other courts around the world will
begin to consider chimpanzees, our closest genetic cousins, creatures
deserving of the most fundamental of legal rights--or whether they'll
remain viewed as mere objects.