The captive chimpanzees Tommy and Kiko will not be transferred to a South Florida sanctuary after a Manhattan appeals court on Thursday joined four previous state courts in refusing to recognize the animals' legal “personhood.”

A panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, knocked down an animal rights group's central argument that chimpanzees are highly intelligent animals capable of bearing societal duties, and that therefore they should be accorded greater legal rights.

“The asserted cognitive and linguistic capabilities of chimpanzees do not translate to a chimpanzee's capacity or ability, like humans, to bear legal duties, or to be held legally accountable for their actions,” wrote Justice Troy Webber in Nonhuman Rights Project v. Lavery, 162358/15, and Nonhuman Rights Project v. Presti, 150149/16.