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Great Ape Project

Animal Welfare Agency

Portland, Oregon, USA

Great Ape Project (Established 1993)
Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, 721 NW 9th Ave, Suite 280 , Portland , Oregon 97209 USA
Director: Doug Cress Phone: 503.467.0752 E-mail: gap@greatapeproject.org

Mission: The Great Ape Project is an idea, a book, and an organization. The idea is radical but simple: to include the nonhuman great apes within the community of equals by granting them the basic moral and legal protection that only human beings currently enjoy. The book, which is the collective work of a group of scientists and scholars, is a multifaceted argument against the unthinking denial of fundamental rights to beings who are not members of our own species, but who quite evidently possess many of the characteristics that we consider morally important. The organization is a newly established international group founded to work for the removal of the nonhuman great apes from the category of property, and for their immediate inclusion within the category of persons. We demand the extension of the community of equals to include all great apes: human beings, chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans. The "community of equals" is the moral community within which we accept certain basic moral principles or rights as governing our relations with each other and enforceable at law. rights are the following: 1) The Right to Life, 2) The Protection of Individual Liberty, 3) The Prohibition of Torture.

Principal Research Programs: Census Project: http://www.censusproject.com; Email newsletter, GAPNews. To subscribe, email gap@greatapeproject.org .

Number of Staff: 2

Species Supported: Pan paniscus; Pongo pygmaeus; Gorilla gorilla; Pan troglodytes

Web Site: http://www.greatapeproject.org

Entry created: 1998-03-30
Review requested: 2007-02-27
Entry last reviewed: 2002-10-23

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