Equal Rights for Primate-Americans?

Usually animals rights wacko movements start in the U.S., but this one is coming from Spain (from Special Report):

A Spanish lawmaker has proposed a resolution that would make Spain the first country to grant human rights to apes. The Green Party's Francisco Garrido says primates are genetically "so close to humans" that they deserve to be treated as more than "mere objects or play things."

His proposal would bestow on gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans the "fundamental moral and legal protections of the right to life, the freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and protection from torture." London's Daily Telegraph reports that the resolution is set to be debated by the parliament's environment committee at the end of the month, where Garrido says he expects it to pass.

Let's see - they don't speak English, they don't have papers allowing them to legally enter the country, and they do jobs that most Americans don't want to do. Sounds like Howard Dean could have a whole new crop of Dem voters if he gets on this bandwagon.