More on Ape Rights

We are all apes now, as the Spanish Parliament will soon be granting “human” rights to apes, which is actually to say that human rights are being demoted into mere temporary protections. This story deserves greater coverage, and I intend to do something about that in the next few weeks. But for now, here’s an excerpt from the Guardian’s story:

Using apes in circuses, television commercials or filming will also be banned and while housing apes in Spanish zoos, of which there are currently 315, will remain legal, supporters of the bill have said the conditions in which most of them live will need to improve substantially

Of course the purpose of this isn’t to merely improve the treatment of great apes—which could be accomplished as it already has been in some places via normal animal welfare statutes. Rather, the explicit point of the GAP is revolutionary—to demote human beings from the uniquely valuable species and into merely another animal in the forest. Once people accept that premise, Judeo/Christian philosophy goes to the guillotine allowing the utilitarian agenda to proceed unhindered, leading in turn to the moral value of the weak and vulnerable among us becoming archaic, resulting in their loss of the right to life and being used instrumentally for those deemed more valuable. (Lest you think I exaggerate, check out Peter Singer’s writings, and who can deny that his values are triumphing?)

In the world being born out of the ashes of the sanctity/equality of human life ethic, value will be subjective and rights temporary—depending on one’s individual capacities rather than humanity. And we will see apes—animals (and eventually other animals), which are completely oblivious about the hue and cry being mounted against human worth in their names—being viewed as more important than some humans.

This is all very dangerous and subversive to human thriving.

Yea, yea, yea. Yawn. What’s on the tellie tonight?