Respecting our global roommates...

Ever since Spain gave full civil rights to gorillas, chimps, and orangutans last year, I've been thinking about how this trend might grow. At what point will we extend basic rights to all living creatures? I predict that animal law will be huge in the second half of the 21st C. That said, I would not want to defend a mosquito. In fact, I would argue for a specific clause in any declaration of animal rights that gave humans the right to lawfully splatter anything that sucks its blood and whines in its ear while it's trying to sleep.