Fw: Austria: The fight for personhood for chimpanzee Hiasl - EVANA-Interview

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Austria: The fight for personhood for chimpanzee Hiasl - EVANA-Interview

Austria: The fight for personhood for chimpanzee Hiasl - EVANA-Interviewwith Paula Stibbe 'The idea to get basic human rights granted to Hiasl was a result of thefears of what could possibly happen to him.'Paula Stibbe, a language trainer from the UK living in Austria, has taken onthe difficult task of fighting for personhood for chimpanzee Hiasl. EVANAasked Paula about her friendship with Hiasl and the development of the courtproceedings. 16 November 2008 EVANA: Paula, how is your hairy friend Hiasl doing? Paula: Thanks for asking! Hiasl is doing as well as any wild animal kept incaptivity can. Now the summer is over, he is finding the days a bit boring.He spends less time outside during the winter months. It can get pretty coldin Vienna. His companion chimpanzee, Rosi normally takes to her bed over thewinter and can only be coaxed out with visits from human friends or specialtreats. EVANA: When did you get to know him? And how? Paula: Well, back in around 2000, when I was fresh in Austria, I volunteeredto do a great ape censor for the Great Ape Project. They were collectingdata on captive great apes all over the world to have a record of who waswhere and what conditions they were living in. I visited zoos and researchinstitutes meeting the various great apes being kept in Austria. Meeting thechimps in the research centre is a bit of an exaggeration, what actuallyhappened is that I was led around in the ground floor of a building whereunder my feet there was thick glass allowing me to see down into thechimpanzees in their individual cages in the basement! I had read enoughabout chimpanzees to know that I was not being overly sentimental about notwanting to literally walk all over them! I was horrified, many of the chimpsleapt up to their ceilings, banging their fists against the glass. Otherscowered in the corner, hugging their knees, hardly daring to look up.Anyway, I am very happy to say that those chimps were "pensioned off" by thelab and now they live in groups at an Austrian safari park. Now to come back to Hiasl.he and his companion Rosi were ordered from Africaby the same lab mentioned above to be used as research tools. This was backin the early 1980s. The Viennese Animal Protection Society received a tipoff that chimps were due to arrive at the airport and they alerted theauthorities, who duly confiscated the two baby chimps on arrival. Hiasl and Rosi had survived the traumatic journey from Africa to Europe....the full interview:http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=38981 & lang=en