Judge Declares Chimp Has Rights And Must Be Freed From Zoo

''Cecilia the chimpanzee has spent years living alone in a concrete enclosure at a zoo in Argentina — but that's all set to change.

In an historic ruling this week, Argentine Judge María Alejandra Mauricio declared that Cecilia isn't a thing, but rather a being who is "subject to nonhuman rights."

She ordered that Cecilia be released from her barren home at the infamous Mendoza Zoo and sent to live among her own kind at a sanctuary.

The decision comes on the heels of an extensive case filed by the Association of Officials and Lawyers for Animal Rights (AFADA) and the Great Ape Project (or Proyecto Gran Simio), some two years in the making...''

by Stephen Messenger