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A plan to free five elephants from a Colorado zoo has been rejected after a court ruled that elephants are not human.
The animal rights group said that Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo were arrested at the zoo and filed to be moved to an elephant sanctuary.
It tried to introduce a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of animals – a legal process that allows a person to challenge their detention in court.
The Supreme Court in Colorado said that the issue was too complicated about “whether an elephant is a person” and therefore they had the same rights as a person – in the end they decided that they did not.
It ruled 6-0 in favor of a previous district court ruling that said the state’s habeas corpus policy “applies only to humans, not nonhuman animals”.
That was true “regardless of their cognitive, emotional, or social status,” state Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter added in her opinion. control.
Although he said that the five African elephants were “large”, the court ruled that the claim could not be made “because elephants are not human beings”.
The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) called for the elephants to be moved from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to “appropriate elephant habitat” by 2023.
The group argued that the animals had a right to freedom because they were sentient and intelligent animals.
It said the elephants were showing “injuries, brain damage, and temporary stress” and that they had been “imprisoned” at the zoo.
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo rejected the decision, saying the elephants received special treatment, and was upheld by a district court.
After the Supreme Court’s decision, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo called the NRP’s lawsuit “frivolous” and said it “wasted” time and money on the case.
It accused the group of “misusing the court system to raise money” and said its aim was to “trick people into giving their money by constantly announcing court cases and constantly calling for donors to donate”.
The NRP said the proposal should “go ahead[d] It is a clear injustice, to say that unless a person is a person he does not have the right to freedom. “
“As with other justice organizations, early losses are expected as we challenge the entrenched practices that have allowed Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo to suffer psychologically and physically for the rest of their lives,” the group said. words.
NRP’s previous proposal to release Happy the elephant at the Bronx Zoo in New York was rejected after a court ruled that he was not legally human.
