This is not a first. A court in a semi-autonomous island that is part of Spain has ruled similarly in the past. I don't remember which island; maybe Minorca. I don't have a link; I read this news a while ago. Basically they recognized primates as persons, granted them a number of personhood rights, and made killing a primate a felony similar to killing a human (but punished with smaller sentences).
I believe it is a scientific fact (as confirmed by a panel of scientists from Oxford University) that many animal species are sentient. The Oxford panel included many species; I'd probably be a little more restrictive and consider as such only the highly intelligent ones like the great apes, the dolphins, and let's not forget the pigs (it is a poorly known fact that pigs are highly intelligent, much more than dogs and cats). Those species whose individuals have a sense of self, understand their destiny, anticipate their demise with anguish, have a concept of families and loved ones, have some sort of rudimentary language or the ability to learn one, etc., as it's been proven about a few animal species, should enjoy some protections under the law. It would be the humane thing to do.
Animal cruelty of any kind is despicable, however I don't think that considering very unsophisticated animals such as fish and chicken as livestock, harvested or raised for human consumption, is particularly wrong; hopefully more humane methods for raising and killing them should be employed; I'm no vegetarian, much less vegan. I love meat.
The highly intelligent ones, though, I'd be a lot more sympathetic towards them.
