Animal Rights Group Takes a Photographer to Court to Pay a Monkey

Before you read: some questions to help you think about the topic and the words you might need.

What rights do you think animals have?

Do you know of any animal rights groups that are powerful?

A rare type of monkey who took a photo of a well-known, smiling "selfie" should be said to be the photo's owner and receive payment for copyright infringement after it was used in a wildlife book, animal rights activists argued in a U.S. lawsuit on Tuesday.

Naruto, a six-year-old monkey who lives free in the forest on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, took the photo and some others about four years ago using a camera left alone by British photographer David Slater, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in the legal claim.

The so-called Monkey Selfies that resulted came from a number of planned and voluntary actions by Naruto, without the help of the photographer, said the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Naruto has the right to own and benefit from the copyright ... in the same way as any other author, they claim. Slater said he felt rather bemused and persecuted by the legal action, which he said seemed to be some kind of action by PETA to get known in the media.

He said he was very disappointed not to have been contacted by PETA before, and described himself as a low-paid wildlife photographer who has been having difficulty to make ends meet.

He said he is understanding about animals having rights to property in some situations, but he said not with this kind of situation.

Their plan seems more to try to make me out to be a criminal than someone who loves and respects and fights for animals. ... he said he doesn’t know what are the true reasons for this legal attack on him, he said.

The lawsuit names the photographer and his company. The company published and sold the photos for profit in the United States in a book that has copies of the photos. Naruto's orange-eyed, smiling and happy selfie is on the book’s front cover.

PETA said it was bringing the legal action for the monkey because the monkey could not, and that the court had power to decide a punishment because of the book sales made in the United States.

Sulawesi monkeys are in danger of disappearing from the Earth because their numbers are decreasing.

Between 4,000 to 6,000 live on the island, and PETA said their numbers have decreased by about 90 percent in the last 25 years, mostly because of human encroachment on their rainforest homes.

PETA asked the court to declare Naruto the monkey, the author and copyright owner of the photos, and to award the monkey payment.

It also wants the court order to let PETA and a famous primatologist, from Georg-August University, Gottingen, Germany, to control Naruto's rights on condition that all profit be used only for the benefit of the monkey, his family and community, including taking care of the monkey’s home.

A spokesman for the photographer’s book company said the company did not comment on waiting legal actions.

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=8, B=1, C=3, D=2, E=7, F=6, G=4, H=5

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1. Most young girls these days seem to have hundreds of selfies in their phones.

2. If you park your car illegally here, you will receive and infringement notice.

3. I was bemused when the lazy student told me he deserved an A+

4. The Jews received a lot of persecution in history.

5. If you earn the minimum wage or salary, then it is difficult to make ends meet.

6. My ex-girlfriend made me out to be a terrible person, but it wasn’t true.

7. I hate it when somebody encroaches on my space on the subway by taking all the seating room next to me.

8. I thank my mother for taking care of me all those years.

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1. How do you feel about people who are always taking selfies?

2. How much do you agree or disagree with this photographer’s infringement? Does it bemuse you? Why?

3. Why do you think PETA is persecuting this photographer?

4. If you were only just making ends meet as a photographer, would you continue to follow that dream?

5. What would you do if someone or some group was making you out to be a bad person?

6. Do you feel that we as humans are encroaching on the monkeys’ homes?

7. How can we take better care of keeping the monkey population safe?