Elephants can’t pursue their release from a zoo because they’re not human, court says
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV/Gray News) - The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that elephants do not have the same rights as humans.
The ruling comes after the Nonhuman Rights Project filed a lawsuit against the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo over the conditions the animals.
Last October, the group sued the zoo over the welfare of its five elephants: Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo.
The NhRP was claiming habeas corpus as the elephants' next friend. This term is typically used when a human speaks up on behalf of another human, but a case being argued regarding an animal is rare.
The court was working to decide on if a nonhuman was entitled to that form of legal protection.
It ultimately decided that “no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be” animals cannot apply for habeas under Colorado’s statute.
The Colorado court shared its decision “does not turn on our regard for these majestic animals,” The Associated Press reports.
“Instead, the legal question here boils down to whether an elephant is a person,” the court said. “And because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim.”
The Nonhuman Rights Project called the ruling an injustice.
“This Colorado Supreme Court opinion perpetuates a clear injustice, stating that unless an individual is human they have no right to liberty. Future courts will reject this notion, as judges in the United States and around the world have already begun to do,” a spokesperson for the group shared. “As with other social justice movements, early losses are expected as we challenge an entrenched status quo.”
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo called the lawsuit that was filed frivolous.
“As we had hoped, all six participating Colorado Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled in our favor. The Nonhuman Rights Project filed a frivolous lawsuit aiming to remove the Zoo’s five aging African elephants,” a spokesperson with the zoo shared in a statement. “While we’re happy with this outcome, we are disappointed that it ever came to this.”
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