The cause of animal rights may be moving forward. Activists were given a historic victory yesterday when a judge at the New York Supreme Court of Justice briefly decreed that chimpanzees held at Stony Brook University for research purposes are covered by a writ of habeas corpus, effectively rendering the animals as legal “people”. Although the decision to grant the chimps human rights was amended hours later, the Nonhuman Rights Project, which claims the animals are unlawfully detained, said they plan to use it in future cases brought in the defense of other intelligent animals such as elephants and dolphins. Even if the May 6^th hearing of a Stony Brook University representative brings no further development to the case, yesterday’s temporary decision of the judge may have just cracked the door open onto a new era for the defense of captive animals in the court of law in America.