Austrian court: an ape is no human

Since last year Matt Pan, a 26-year-old chimp ha been in the middle of a legal debate over personhood.

When Matt's animal shelter filed for bankruptcy in February, a wealthy businessman came forward offering to pay the costs of the chimp's upkeep, but under Austrian law, only a person can receive gifts. So, a group of activists sought to have Matt, who has the cognitive abilities of a child, declared a person.

But a person Matt is not, Austria's Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The court rejected the activists' petition to appoint a trustee for the chimp, affirming a lower court's ruling that Matt, however endearing, cannot claim personhood, even though chimps and humans share around 99 percent of the same DNA.



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