Attempt to legally adopt chimp goes to appeal

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
VIENNA–Austrian judge Barbara Bart on April 24, 2007
rejected the request of British teacher Paula Stibbe, 38, a
longtime resident of Vienna, that she be allowed to legally adopt
Hiasl, 26, a male chimpanzee, whom she has visited weekly at a now
bankrupt sanctuary since 1999. Stibbe immediately appealed the
verdict.
Stibbe petitioned to adopt Hiasl, she said, out of concern
that he might be sold to a laboratory outside of Austria. Bart ruled
that the adoption could not proceed because Hiasl is neither a
mentally impaired human nor in a crisis situation requiring emergency
intervention.

Using chimps and other great apes in experimentation is
already illegal within Austria. Recalled World Society for the
Protection of Animals educational projects manager Jasmijn de Boo,
who recently helped to found pro-animal political parties in The
Netherlands and Britain, “In the year 2002, the last chimps were
retired from vivisection at the labs of the company Baxter in Orth at
the Danube, east of Vienna. The retirement opened up debate on the
justification of experiments on all apes,” leading to the December
2005 passage of the ban, in effect since January 1, 2006.