Orangutan gets personhood status

[Catherine]

It is the beginning of change towards a new level of protection. It is like the first animal cruelty laws. They didn't do much, but they dared to say that it is not alright to be cruel to an animal. Now we have a ruling that says that an animal can have rights. Some places have just created laws to say that animals are not things like furniture and so they should be treated differently.

It is hopefully the beginning of a new era.