Michigan Court Denies Chimpanzees Habeas Corpus, Must Stay in Zoo
Chimpanzees are not “persons” capable of being “imprisoned” for purposes of habeas corpus.
It’s not every day a court is asked whether chimpanzees have constitutional rights just like people do, but that was the novel question before a three-judge panel of the Michigan state court of appeals earlier this month.
The answer, of course, was no. Chimpanzees are not “persons” in the eyes of the law, the appellate court held, denying the petition for habeas corpus filed on behalf of seven chimps by the Nonhuman Rights Project, an advocacy group dedicated to securing legal rights for “nonhuman animals.”
In fact, this wasn’t the first time the organization tried to get primates out of prison, i.e., the zoo. Professor Jacobson wrote about a similar claim they filed in New York state over ten years ago here. They lost, for the same obvious reason: chimpanzees aren’t “persons” entitled to habeas corpus relief for false imprisonment.
That didn’t stop the animal rights zealots from trying again, this time seeking to free the chimps held captive at the roadside DeYoung Family Zoo in Michigan. In December 2023, the Michigan circuit court summarily denied their request without holding a hearing, presumably because it didn’t need to. Again, the alleged “prisoner” chimpanzees were not “persons” eligible for habeas relief, Judge Mary Barglind stated on the court’s order form. The Nonhuman Rights Project appealed.
Writing on behalf of the appellate court, Judge Matthew Ackerman traces the origins of the habeas remedy back to English common law to affirm the trial court’s decision.
Chimpanzees are animals, and the law regards animals as property, the judge concluded—no doubt to the chagrin of the Nonhuman Rights Project.
Man’s dominion over beast is rooted in the creation narrative, the esteemed jurist Sir William Blackstone explained over 200 years ago:
In the beginning of the world, we are informed by holy writ, the all-bountiful Creator gave to man ‘dominion over all the earth; and over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’ . . . The earth, therefore, and all things therein, are the general property of all mankind, exclusive of other beings, from the immediate gift of the Creator.
“No exception exists for ‘intelligent’ animals, which in any event has no natural stopping point,” Judge Ackerman added.
This is not the animals-are-people-too result the Nonhuman Rights Project was hoping for, and they say they will appeal the decision to the Michigan Supreme Court.
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Comments
The ruling means that, while chumps are considered persons, chimps are not. If the chief concern was danger to the public, chimps would be free and chumps would be locked up.
If it was up to the democrats they’d get drivers licenses, green cards, health insurance, and be allowed to vote.
the chimp in the cage looks much more intelligent that eric swalwell.
The cage looks more intelligent than Eric Swalwell.
Eric Swalwell flings as much crap as the chimps in the old Slater Park Zoo did back in the 1960s. But Swalwell couldn’t hold a candle to them in a battle of wits.
Thumb up for Slater Park reference!
I was born in Pawtucket. Had an aunt that lived close enough to the zoo that you could hear the lion roaring. The woods along the Ten Mile River were my stomping grounds. Later, I graduated to the European Alps and America’s National Parks.
In HS, I lived close enough to McCoy Stadium to walk there after supper for a ball game. Had an uncle who worked as a fireman at the station near the stadium.
I believe the Professor currently lives very close to where my best friend’s grand parents once had a property on the Barrington waterfront. My friend’s dad kept his boats moored there. At 17 years old, three of us boys sailed to Block Island on a 27 footer. Came back via Mystic, CT.
Well, those are some of the RI bona fides.
Swalwell doesn’t deserve to be in the same room with the chimp. The chimp was never the dupe of Chinese spies,
And he probably is
Were the people who filed this silly petition fined for abusing the court and wasting it’s time?
Aren’t there sanctions for filing obviously frivolous lawsuits like this?
No — this was Biden’s backup plan in case someone stopped his illegals from voting.
You know!!! At some point in time they are going to find a court that is so far out of the park, they will get the ruling they want.
Hello, Hawaii judge.
Hawaii doesn’t have chimps.
It does have sharks, which raises the opportunity of a self-solving problem.
Came here to say the same thing. It’s only a matter of time.
A judge in New Zealand ruled that a river has human rights.
Not true. The Whangangui River has the rights of a legal person, not those of a human being. Corporations are legal persons, but are not human.
And it has those rights, not through the decision of any judge, but by legislation. After 140 years of negotiations and nearly a century of litigation between the government and the local Maori people, the parties reached a settlement under which the government agreed to pass legislation granting the river legal personhood. It’s represented by two guardians who can sue on its behalf if anyone harms the river.
King Kong cannot help, the recent rallies clearly state that no king shall be tolerated.
The judge was lucky the Chimp wasn’t at the hearing. They tend to throw things that intelligent animals actually flush down toilets.
Humans may have domain over the animals , but that doesn’t mean God wanted us to be cruel, as surely we are to these “Almost Humans”
We are the destroyer of animal kind
The ridiculous comments here about an animal
With a soul maybe you should watch a few Jane Goodall movies
Or read a book
I just got back from
Climbing a mountain in Rwanda to experience the greatest apes in freedom
You all can go to hell
Sorry to differ with you, but I’ve seen the results of a Chimpanzee attack. They have no compassion nor ability to reason between ethics and instinct.
Their wild animals , what the hell do you expect
Should they be put in prison hell all the. Bear, lions, tigers,
What are you so afraid of?
Should we continue to experiment on them?
Oh, maybe the beagles whose faces were eaten off and their brains by insects?
You ok with that?
That you can’t control the animal kingdom?
So your living in a chimpanzee forested area and afraid to go go outside
There is so little wild spaces for them to live amd for us to not only be good Stuart’s of the land but the animals God put in our kingdom
Those chimpanzees were in awful situations, kept as pets, tortured in experiments, jailed in prisons at your local zoo
Get a life
Chill, dude…we aren’t starving our brothers.
They go for the face and hands first. It’s very brutal but as pointed out, they are wild animals. Anyone who keeps one as a pet and lets it walk around free in the house is on borrowed time
DW is a fan of the YouTube videos where the “intelligent” dogs use a floor covered in pushbuttons to “communicate” with their female (always a female) owner. She is amazed by this, so I let her be. As for me, I am sure there is ten times as much footage in the bit bucket where the dog observed, “run afraid toy stranger play poopies bark,” or chewed one of the buttons’ batteries to shreds.
I wish you a like of cockroaches
You are about 100,000 years too late (if not more) to change the relationship between humans and other animals. We eat them, and we raise them deliberately to eat them.
You do not have to agree, but we were not the first animal to eat another animal. That’s the way the planet functions. The difference is that we think about it.
It’s not about feeding ourselves. We have plenty of domesticated animals unfortunately that are horribly murdered for that.
It’s about the inhumanity of man towards all things wild
It’s scares you, something that won’t be controllled, docile.
You can’t stand it that animals have rights to exist in the world, on their terms
Your like locust , scorching every inch of land and animal , like a blood lust
Humans are animals in this world –and humans, too have rights to exist in this world on THEIR terms.
Just like everything else.
And those terms are survive and breed. There are no other terms.
Keeping animals in a zoo, so people can get some benefit out of them by looking at them, is not cruelty. Cruelty is inflicting suffering for no good reason. That is not happening.
You know nothing of the vast majority of of zoos and the harm they have done over the centuries
Zoos do not do harm. They are fun places for the family to go and look at animals for their entertainment, and in many cases that is the only benefit we get from those animals, which means it’s the only thing that justifies their existence. If we can’t get any benefit from an animal then there is no reason why it should continue to exist, and we should not do anything to prevent its extinction.
You are incredibly ignorant of the facts.
There are many zoos that do irreparable harm to these animals
Are there “good” zoos?
Do they have a purpose?
Yes
But far to far are not good
OMG I agree with Millhouse
So do I. Zoo’s have gotten countless people interested in wildlife they would never see otherwise like monkeys, lions, etc and made everyone aware of them resulting in tons of cash to preserve them in the wild.
Ruling comes too late for Trayvon and George Floyd. 😃
On a practical level – If a judge were ever so insane to grant the chimps freedom – who will take care of them? Release them to the street in Michigan? If the animal rights fokes take them into “care” it will just be a different “prison” or enslavement or something.
Clearly arrangements would be made to transfer to a sanctuary
Jesus…
Step up and take charge. Whining online is oh so “No Kings” behavior.
I actually volunteer at a wild life rescue. We care for about 5000 wild animals a year that have been harmed in some way.
We medically stabilize them and release them back into the wild, except when doing so would harm them, as they are blinded, or have an irreparable wing, and those we keep as ambassadors to teach peole about the wildlife around them and why they are so important to our very existence
Apparently you’ve never had the opportunity to be educated properly
Check out your local wild life rescue
Lessen a bit, you sound positively ignorant in the very least
Ah, so you have renamed your OWN zoo animals “ambassadors.”
Check out the folks who run your shelter. I suspect they are Democrats.
Clearly if a wacko judge did grant the chimps “rights” you know where that is going don’t you? It would end up with all animals having “rights” which means no more pet ownership, no meat on the table etc. That’s the end game. You do not abuse or torture animals and should be prosecuted if you do but beyond that they have no human rights because they are not humans.
I’m not saying we should support animals as having human rights
We should support wild animals having a right to live, all all animals a dignified life prior to our eating them. Then when the dastardly deed must be done, it must be done in a way that the unknown is unknown and efficient, not the barbaric practices we have today. .
Humanity is more than a word
Not to be ripped out of their mother’s arms, mothers butchered for their horns , like shark fins, left to die a painful death.
I order to capture a small ape, the pouches would kill the entire family maybe 20-30 animals, including the big silverbacks, as they will fight to the death for their family… the poachers then would cut off their heads and feet, make ashtrays of them
Just friggin stop. Your being histrionic about this. Lions deserve to live in the wild, free and untamed. Until your kid is eaten by one then not so much
Charlotte99
October 29, 2025 1:48 am
A transport truck carrying lab monkeys infected with hepatitis C, herpes, and COVID has overturned on a Mississippi highway, leaving one infected primate still unaccounted for.
https://nitter.poast.org/Osint613/status/1983281748197908807#m
Ahh Henery
I know the board of directors and leadership very well
I went to Africa for 3 weeks with them this summer.
All very god people that don’t take a dime .
We fund raise endlessly, 5000 moths to feed, wings to mend, shells to repair.
Ambassador is an honored name in the wild life rescue business. It saddens when we can not release back to the wild… for me, especially the birds… flying, what greater freedom is there, to lose that…
But your like all the half brained retards on the left who are screaming about a Ballroom that’s being paid for not by the taxpayers, but gifted from a man we do not deserve.
I’m sure they raised a nice chunk of money then had some DEI lawyers do the work pro bono for feels. Neat little scam they have going.
Your literally nuts
Nuts & Fruitcakes bringing these frivolous lawsuits need to quit monkeying around. They’re making a monkeycary of the judicial system & process
They won’t stop until the judges start sanctioning the lawyers who bring such cases.