New York court to determine if chimpanzee is legally a person

NEW YORK — Should a chimpanzee be treated as a person with legal rights?

That’s what attorney Steven Wise tried to convince a state appeals court in Manhattan on Thursday. Wise, who represents the Florida-based Nonhuman Rights Project animal advocacy group, argued that two chimps named Tommy and Kiko should be freed from cages to live in an outdoor sanctuary in Florida.

The Boston lawyer has been trying for years, unsuccessfully, to get courts to grant the New York chimps habeas corpus in order to, he said, free them from unlawful imprisonment.

He said that if the judges agree, the apes — which didn’t appear in court — would be sent to live with others of their species on one of 13 islands amid a lake in Fort Pierce, Fla., that comprise the Save the Chimps sanctuary.

A five-judge panel will issue its ruling in the coming days or weeks.

Kiko’s keeper, Carmen Presti, said he’s not giving him up.

He and his wife rescued the deaf chimp 23 years ago from a life of performing at state fairs and in the television movie “Tarzan in Manhattan.” Kiko is believed to have lost his hearing when he was beaten by a trainer, and has medical issues requiring constant attention.

“If he’s taken away, he could die without his family to give him the special care he needs, and to bring him into the house to play,” said Presti, of Niagara Falls, N.Y., where he runs the nonprofit Primate Sanctuary, whose rescue animals are part of a youth educational program.

Tommy was caged at a trailer lot in Gloversville, N.Y. His keeper, Patrick Lavery, calls the various lawsuits “a ridiculous thing.” He told The Associated Press that he had temporarily cared for Tommy to spare him from being euthanized, then donated him to an out-of-state facility in September 2015.

Wise’s Coral Springs, Florida-based Nonhuman Rights Project has a history of litigation over chimps that started in 2013, when a lawsuit on behalf of Kiko was first filed in state Supreme Court in Niagara Falls and in Fulton County on behalf of Tommy.