An animal rights group has been granted a court hearing to argue a case that two chimpanzees that live at a New York state university cannot be help captive because they are autonomous, intelligent creatures according to this article on Yahoo! News.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe in Manhattan issued an order requiring the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island to defend its right to keep the primates, Hercules and Leo captive.
The Nonhuman Rights Project claims that because chimpanzees are autonomous, intelligent creatures, their captivity is equivalent to unlawful imprisonment under the law. They are advocating that the chimpanzees be moved to a sanctuary in Florida.
