Photos: PETA Germany Asks Parliament to Grant Personhood to Animals as Understanding Evolves

For Immediate Release:
February 23, 2024

Contact:
Rachel Hershkovitz 202-483-7382

Stuttgart, Germany – Earlier today, in an action to mark PETA Germany’s 30^th anniversary, dozens of PETA members and supporters descended on the New Palace in Stuttgart—dressed in formal attire, carrying briefcases, and wearing animal masks—as they called on the country’s parliament to change the constitution to legally recognize animals as individual persons and grant them basic rights. This includes the right to life, liberty, physical integrity, and the free development of personality. Photos are available here, and video is available here (please drag the video into your web browser for quick playback).

Credit: PETA Germany

Society’s fundamental understanding of identity is rapidly evolving, with gender-neutral driver’s licenses offered in several U.S. states, an orangutan legally recognized as a “person” in Argentina, and legal personhood granted to rivers around the world. PETA entities worldwide are pushing forward this evolution and asking courts to recognize the personhood and legal rights of other animals. In the U.S., PETA’s 13^th Amendment lawsuit sought to free orcas from bondage at SeaWorld and its groundbreaking “monkey selfie” copyright lawsuit sought to establish the right of Naruto the macaque to own and profit from his own creation.

“Animals aren’t things like pieces of furniture—they’re individuals like us who feel pain, fear, and love and value their lives. Simply because humans can dominate them doesn’t mean that we should,” says PETA President and founder of PETA Germany Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA Germany is urging the legal system to recognize that all animals are living, feeling beings who deserve appropriate legal rights and protections for their own sake and not in relation to how they can be exploited by humans.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.