Spain`s environmental committee approved legislation Wednesday that would grant apes the right to life and freedom. The Great Apes Project would extend human rights to chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos.

Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, said human beings are being replaced as the premier species.

Now, we are merely one great ape among several others, each with minimum rights based on individual capacities rather than due to being members of the human species, he wrote on his blog. This is a disaster for universal human rights.

Under the legislation, it would be illegal to keep apes for TV commercials, filming or circuses. Zoos would be required to drastically improve their conditions.