article_snippet.sent: A New York judge has granted two chimpanzees held at a research lab the same rights as human prisoners, after a two year legal battle by an animal rights organization.
article_snippet.sent: The two primates, currently living in a lab at Stony Brook University, are the first animals in history to be covered by a writ of habeas corpus, allowing The two primates, currently living in a lab at Stony Brook University detention to be challenged.
article_snippet.sent: two chimpanzees held at a research lab the same rights as human prisoners are the first animals to be granted the same rights as human prisoners .
article_snippet.sent: The decision by New York Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe effectively recognises two chimpanzees held at a research lab the same rights as human prisoners as legal humans, the American Association for the Advancement of Science reports.
article_snippet.sent: The lawsuits were originally filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project in December 2013, in an attempt to free Hercules and Leo and two other chimpanzees living on private property.
article_snippet.sent: Although the courts threw out the suits, the animal rights' group has been appealing ever since, and have now been granted the writ of habeas corpus on behalf of the Stony Brook chimpanzees.
article_snippet.sent: We are claiming that chimpanzees are autonomous,' the Nonhuman Rights Project's founder Massachusetts lawyer Steven Wise said in an interview last year.
article_snippet.sent: The 2013 lawsuits include affidavits from scientists who say chimpanzees have complex cognitive abilities, such as awareness of the past and the ability to make choices, and display complex emotions such as empathy.
article_snippet.sent: This is a big step forward to getting what we are ultimately seeking: the right to bodily liberty for chimpanzees and other cognitively complex animals,' Natalie Prosin, the Executive Director of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) told the AAAS. '
highlights_snippet.sent: Chimpanzees at Stony Brook University to be covered by habeas corpus writ .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Ruling by judge effectively recognises Chimpanzees at NY university as legal humans .
  UPDATE: 