Austria: The fight for personhood for chimpanzee Hiasl - EVANA-Interview with Paula Stibbe

'The idea to get basic human rights granted to Hiasl was a result of the fears of what could possibly happen to him…'

Paula Stibbe, a language trainer from the UK living in Austria, has taken on the difficult task of fighting for personhood for chimpanzee Hiasl. EVANA asked Paula about her friendship with Hiasl and the development of the court proceedings.



16 November 2008

EVANA: Paula, how is your hairy friend Hiasl doing?

Paula: Thanks for asking! Hiasl is doing as well as any wild animal kept in captivity can. Now the summer is over, he is finding the days a bit boring. He spends less time outside during the winter months. It can get pretty cold in Vienna. His companion chimpanzee, Rosi normally takes to her bed over the winter and can only be coaxed out with visits from human friends or special treats.


EVANA: When did you get to know him? And how?

Paula: Well, back in around 2000, when I was fresh in Austria, I volunteered to do a great ape censor for the Great Ape Project. They were collecting data on captive great apes all over the world to have a record of who was where and what conditions they were living in. I visited zoos and research institutes meeting the various great apes being kept in Austria. Meeting the chimps in the research centre is a bit of an exaggeration, what actually happened is that I was led around in the ground floor of a building where under my feet there was thick glass allowing me to see down into the chimpanzees in their individual cages in the basement! I had read enough about chimpanzees to know that I was not being overly sentimental about not wanting to literally walk all over them! I was horrified, many of the chimps leapt up to their ceilings, banging their fists against the glass. Others cowered in the corner, hugging their knees, hardly daring to look up. Anyway, I am very happy to say that those chimps were “pensioned off” by the lab and now they live in groups at an Austrian safari park.

Now to come back to Hiasl…he and his companion Rosi were ordered from Africa by the same lab mentioned above to be used as research tools. This was back in the early 1980s. The Viennese Animal Protection Society received a tip off that chimps were due to arrive at the airport and they alerted the authorities, who duly confiscated the two baby chimps on arrival. Hiasl and Rosi had survived the traumatic journey from Africa to Europe and they were taken into the care of the society’s animal sanctuary. It was at the sanctuary that I first met Hiasl. After checking me out from a distance, he came over and invited me to play a game of tug-of-war by passing me the end of a sheet and bobbing his head up and down.

EVANA: What is the sanctuary like?

Paula: Hiasl has lived at the Viennese Animal Protection Society (WTV) sanctuary now for around 25 years. The WTV was the first animal protection organization in Austria, it was founded 160 year ago! WTV’s sanctuary is located on the Vienna city border and like virtually all sanctuaries trying to take care of unwanted and abused animals, WTV has financial problems which sometimes threaten its very existence. While Hiasl remains safe as long as the present management presides, what I am concerned about is what could happen should the sanctuary ever go into receivership. This has almost happened on past occasions. My fear is that receivership officials would be duty bound to repay debts by selling assets. Many wild animals could be considered assets, including chimpanzees. What would stop Hiasl being sold to a circus or a research lab in a country where the law permitted chimps to be used in this way?


EVANA: All friends of chimps are amazed and delighted that the Tarzan star Cheeta is still alive as of 2008 at the age of 76. How old is Hiasl?

Paula: Hiasl is still a spring chicken in comparison, we are fairly sure that he is 27.


EVANA: Do you visit him often? Does he recognize you? Did you manage to establish a personal contact with him?

Paula: I drop by and see him usually twice a week. We have a special greeting which has developed over the years; Hiasl tweaks my nose between his index and middle finger. I would say there is a friendship that has built up over the years. This is certainly the case on my part. It would be good to think that he also regards it as a friendship however; Hiasl is a wild animal. I wouldn’t assume to know what constitutes a friendship for chimps! The two chimpanzees have an outdoor enclosure and an indoor one. When I visit I go to the inside enclosure where we can interact through metal bars. Chimpanzees are very strong, they are also known for being impulsive and as Hiasl and Rosi haven’t been used to direct contact to humans i.e. without bars since they were small there seems to be no point taking any risks by going into the enclosure with them.


EVANA: Recently young chimpanzees have outperformed human college students in tasks requiring remembering numbers. Do you think that the intelligence of chimps behind bars is compromised?

Paula: This is such an interesting question. We know that chimps living their own life in the wild with other members of their species have cognitive abilities that have resulted in nothing less than humans having to re-think the notions of what it is that is supposedly unique to being human. Chimps make and use tools and not only that, but different groups of chimps in different locations have different ways of making and using tools. This last point is what we humans define as culture, and there it is, displayed in non-human animals!

The lynch pin for all this being able to happen is that chimps are social beings who learn from others. Now what happens to chimps who are ripped out of their environment as babies, many even witnessing the murder of their mother and or other group members? Well, they miss out on the essential learning phase which teaches them how to be a successful chimp. This is not something that can be given back to them. It is extremely difficult to re-introduce captive chimps back into the wild because they have not learnt the skills they need for getting by in their own environment.

The fate for a captive chimp can be varied. The best he or she can hope for is some kind of setting with other chimps and minimal human intervention. Some zoos and sanctuaries have achieved this whereby large groups of chimps have the run of an island. They are then free to form and move between different chimp groups as they would in the wild. In this way they also learn from each other.

At the other end of the scale there are research labs, circuses and poorly equipped zoos. Only the luckiest of chimps in these places will live with other chimps, their days will be monotonous and their surroundings non-stimulating, not to mention the experiences they suffer during experimentation and training. These conditions not only stunt the chimps’ development, but they are also responsible for some serious abnormal behaviour.

Then there is the whole issue of encultured chimps. This term refers to captive chimps which have been brought up in a human environment. Typically chimps brought up in private households reach a stage where they become unmanageable and after forming strong attachments to humans they are passed onto an uncertain fate. There is another large group of captive apes that are also encultured; they are being used to study language. They have been brought up as human children and use sign language or symbols on display pads which represent words. Whether it is acceptable to use apes for this purpose or not is debatable, but what is truly astonishing is that many of these chimps identify themselves more with humans than chimps. The female chimpanzee Washoe, for example, called other chimps “black bugs” when she met them for the first time!
(Fouts, Roger. Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees. New York: Avon Books, 1977).


EVANA: Amazing studies have shown that chimpanzees can demonstrate altruistic behaviour, curiosity towards wildlife and even appreciate natural beauty. Even though the life of Hiasl is very restricted, does he get a chance to somewhow enjoy the life a sentient, intelligent being he is entitled to?

Paula: In as far as is possible, yes. Hiasl has also shown acts of kindness; I remember some years back, during a visit to Hiasl, I received a call on my mobile and got some sad news that made me shed a few tears. I can only describe Hiasl’s reaction as showing concern; he came over and sat beside me, made soft “uh” sounds, looked me carefully in the face and gently stroked my arm. On other occasions I have seen him go outside in the rain to fetch food and bring it inside where he shares it with his companion Rosi. Chimpanzees are not renowned for their generosity when it comes to food sharing, so I was very surprised, although I have to say that Rosi is pretty persistent in her begging and Haisl may share the food with her more to get her off his back than out of kindness! I also don’t rule out the possibility that they have some deal going and that I am not privy to her part of it. But, as you mentioned, there are many documented instances of non-human altruism.


EVANA: Do you take treats along when you visit him? What are his favoured snacks?

Paula: One of the things I can do for Hiasl and Rosi is to try and make their day a bit more varied. So when I visit them I take snacks, but I try to give them these snacks in a way that they have to find them or in a way that they taste different. I usually take along juice, fresh and dried fruit and nuts. But Hiasl’s favorite at the moment is chocolate coated rice cakes! I make up food parcels and hide them or scatter food around. In the summer I freeze fruit and juice.


EVANA: Chimps like to have fun and ape around. What amuses, entertains or interests Hiasl?

Paula: Hiasl loves to play. The games he likes most are chase, tug of war and tickling. One of the very touching things about Hiasl is how considerate he is. Because we are used to seeing baby chimps in TV commercials, many people are surprised to see just how big and strong an adult chimp really is. They are actually many times stronger than an adult male human. When Hiasl and I play, tickle, or groom each other he takes great care not to use too much of his strength or to be too rough. I often think that this must be like a human adult playing with a child.

It is always an absolute delight to make him laugh. Hiasl’s laugh is like a silent pant, where he drops his lower jaw and bobs his head up and down or side to side. He finds it very funny when we play tug of war and I let go of the end and he flies backwards, or when we play chase and he catches me out by changing direction.

Occasionally Hiasl likes to draw, usually with chalk or crayons. He becomes very concentrated, holding the paper up against a wall and making deliberate lines on the paper.

Hiasl’s companion Rosi is less interested in play and much more interested in doing things; she shows a lot of interest for example in an electronic keyboard, she was also fascinated when we set up a video camera and TV so that she could watch herself. After some time and a lot of excitement, she started making slow and seemingly deliberate movements of her body and watching the TV screen intently. The two chimpanzees have very different personalities.


EVANA: You have started legal proceedings for him to enjoy some kind of human rights. What gave you the idea and who are your allies in this case? Do you cooperate with organizations in other countries which are on the same crusade? Did scientists get involved in the fight?

Paula: The idea to get basic human rights granted to Hiasl was a result of the fears of what could possibly happen to him should the sanctuary not longer be in a position to decide his fate. After exploring ideas with sympathetic lawyers it became obvious that the only way to secure his future would be to change the way he is regarded in the eyes of the law. The law recognizes persons as having subjective status. This subjective status is what, in the cold light of day, makes the difference between whether a being is treated as a thing, which can be used, bought and sold or as a being that has interests which can be harmed or respected. In the latter case the three basic rights apply: right to life, liberty and prohibition of torture. Hiasl’s future therefore rests on whether he has personhood. At first sight it seems as if person must mean the same as human being, but this is not the case; there are arguably human beings who do not fulfill the criteria of personhood and equally persons who are not a member of the species Homo sapiens.

If a court can be convinced of Hiasl’s personhood I can then represent his interests, in just the same way that humans, who are unable to represent themselves, have representation in the form of a legal advocate.

We collected four expert statements arguing that Haisl fulfills the criteria that define a person. They were from Prof. Stefan Hammer, professor of civil rights and constitutional law at the University of Vienna, Prof. Eva-Maria Maier, professor of philosophy of law at the University of Vienna, Prof. Volker Sommer, professor of anthropology at the University of London, and Dr. Signe Preuschoft, biologist and chimp expert at the University of Zurich, who was scientific head of the rehabilitation project of the ex-lab chimps in Austria.

There are also exciting developments in other parts of the world regarding personhood for non-human animals. This year the Spanish Parliament signed a cross-party declaration to grant legal rights to other great apes.


EVANA: What is the status of this high visibility legal case at this moment?

Paula: Whilst all the courts in the Austrian legal system did not actually tackle the issue of Hiasl’s personhood, they did find reasons to not hear the case. The Supreme Court ruled that we have no right to apply for legal guardianship for Hiasl and so now we have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights with the argument that Hiasl is being denied a fair trail.


EVANA: Is Hiasl the only chimp keeping the courts busy or are there other prominent primates like him in other parts of the world?

Paula: There are many campaigns working towards getting personhood recognized in non-human great apes and a great many academics exploring the issue. It is certainly a very exciting area which many people regard as very provocative! As far as I am aware, Hiasl’s case is unique at the moment.

I would like to mention something that readers maybe asking themselves about Hiasl’s companion Rosi; Rosi is, of course, just as important as Hiasl, they are, after all, both in exactly the same situation. The present case focuses on Hiasl because it is simpler for the legal system and the media, additionally, if we are not successful with Hiasl’s case, then we can start a case for Rosi: Something we would rule out if we included both chimps at once.


EVANA: What is the situation for great apes elsewhere? Are there already countries excluding them from vivisection?

Paula: Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand and Austria all have laws prohibiting the use of great apes for experimentation. Austria also includes the lesser apes in this prohibition. It is important to note that while these developments are huge and very important milestones, they offer protection, not a change in legal status.


EVANA: Do you have hope that wild chimps will survive the next decades in spite of the unstoppable destruction of their habitat and the fact that in many parts of Africa they are slaughtered for meat? What protection measures would you recommend?

Paula: It seems to me that the only chance will be designated areas where non-human great apes can live out their natural lives. The incentive for use of precious land for this purpose in an ideal situation would be (and is I believe in some cases) jobs created through protecting these areas and through this new branch of eco-tourism.

The issue of land and resources for completing groups or species appears to me to be a lot more thorny than Haisl’s situation. Hiasl was abducted from his native Africa with the intent to use him for the benefit of humans. He is a refugee in our society. The least we, as a society, can do is to respect his interests and recognize that we have a responsibility to him.


EVANA: Of course, you can’t rescue all of our non-human cousins from life threatening danger but you are trying very hard to offer a safe future to Hiasl. What would you consider as a happy ending for him?

Paula: Top of the list is to make sure that he cannot be bought or sold or simply put to sleep. Making sure that his life in our environment is safe for him and us as well as being stimulating and as chimp-friendly as possible is something which I and his paid carers invest a lot of time in. There maybe the chance in the future for Hiasl (and his companion of course) to join a group of other chimpanzees. This would be an arguably risky step; it could turn out well for them, or disastrously. Integrating into a new group requires pretty good social skills even if you have a lot experience of doing this and have had a “normal” upbringing.


EVANA: What are your next steps?

Paula: Well, we are waiting for the verdict from the European Court of Human Rights. Our appeal was registered earlier this year, but it could take up to two years to get a decision.


EVANA: How can those wanting to support your fight do so?

Paula: Something people wanting to support Hiasl can do is to write to the European Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Thomas Hammarberg, asking him to hear this case.
(Information on how to contact him)


EVANA: Do you think that the latest EU plans to ban laboratory tests on mankind's closest relatives could also strengthen Hiasl’s case?

Paula: There has been criticism that this EU proposal is an empty gesture because there is no experimentation on great apes in the member states. For me this is a typical example of change in attitude which comes about via grass roots and NGO campaigning, which results in a change in the law at a much later date. We might wish it to be different, but it seems quite logical to me. This legislation is vital to ensure that society doesn’t slide back to finding it acceptable to use great apes for experimentation in the future. With this ban, it will be more likely to have Hiasl’s case heard. If using great apes for experimentation was not questioned I am sure it would be more difficult to have Hiasl’s personhood taken seriously.


EVANA: Paula, I am sure that Hiasl would thank you if he knew about your efforts to help him. Well, he can’t express these feelings of gratitude but we can! So we want to thank for all you are doing and for being such a determined ally to a helpless people suffering from life-threatening pressure. We wish Hiasl and all his friends that eventually they’ll get the respect they are entitled to.

Source: Detailed information of Hiasl’s case
Autor: Herma Caelen spoke to Paula Stibbe on behalf of EVANA

Link: Photo chimp
Link: Simple Brain Mechanisms Explain Arbitrary Human Visual Decisions ... Other researchers had already demonstrated the same principle in primates
Link: The Great Ape Project demands basic rights for all great apes
Link: The population of West African chimpanzees in Ivory Coast has fallen by about 90% in less than 20 years
Link: Washoe was one of the most famous encultured great apes. She is unfortunately no longer alive. Her story is fascinating


Other EVANA-articles about this topic:
'Chimpsploitation' has got to stop (en)
Austria: Is chimp 'Hiasl' a person? (en)
Austrian Supreme Court refuses legal guardian for chimp Hiasl (en)
Washoe communicated, but did we listen? (en)
USA: Chimpanzee Who Knew Sign Language Dies (en)
Austria: Activists Want Chimp Declared a 'Person' (en)
Should apes have human rights? (en)
A world first: Great Ape trial in Austria (en)