Stony Brook University, in New York, agreed to release Leo and Hercules, the two chimpanzees who were under the court ruling at the Supreme Court of New York, with the possibility of being granted with a Habeas Corpus.

The University has been very pressured by animal rights organizations and by its own members, not to be humiliated in front of Justice if the chimpanzees gain the cause filed.

The chimpanzees will go to Save the Chimps Sanctuary, in Florida, after years in cages and being tortured with biomedical experiments.

Lawyer Steven Wise, president of the organization Nonhuman Rights Project, who has filed the writ of Habeas Corpus, said he would appeal the sentence, to achieve for the first time that a US Court recognizes the rights of Great Apes and their Legal Personality.

Judge Barbara Jaffe, who had received the application for Habeas Corpus and had been informed of the decision of the University, closed the case, knowing that the chimpanzees would be released without the intervention of Justice. She also acknowledged that in the future some rights of these beings will be recognized legally.

At the other end of the Americas, in the city of Mendoza, Argentina, on August 12, a request for Habeas Corpus for another chimpanzee, also accepted in a first evaluation by another Judge, Dr. María Alejandra Mauricio, may be granted. This will allow chimpanzee Cecilia, who is isolated and abandoned at Mendoza Zoo, to be transferred to Sorocaba GAP Sanctuary, in Brazil.

Dr. Pedro A.Ynterian

President, GAP Project International