A bid to free five elephants from a Colorado zoo has been rejected after a court ruled the elephants are not people.
An animal rights group argued that Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Lauro and Jambo were effectively imprisoned at the zoo and applied to move them to an elephant sanctuary.
It seeks to bring a claim for habeas corpus action on behalf of the animal – a legal proceeding that enables a person to challenge his or her detention in court.
The Colorado Supreme Court said the matter came down to “whether an elephant is a person” and therefore has the same rights to freedom as humans – ultimately deciding they don’t.
It ruled 6-0 over a previous district court ruling that said the state’s habeas corpus proceedings “apply only to persons, not nonhuman animals.”
This is true “no matter how mature they are cognitively, psychologically or socially,” state Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter ruling.
She said the five elderly African elephants were “majestic”, but a court ruled that claim could not be made because an elephant is not a person.
The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) is requesting that the elephants be moved from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to an “appropriate elephant sanctuary” by 2023.
The organization believes these animals have a right to freedom because they are emotionally complex and intelligent animals.
It claimed the elephants showed signs of “trauma, brain damage and chronic stress” and were effectively “incarcerated” at the zoo.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo rejected that claim, arguing the elephants received extraordinary care, and a district court upheld the claim.
After the Supreme Court ruling, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo called NRP’s lawsuit “frivolous” and said it was a “waste” of time and money on the case.
It accuses the group of “abusing the court system to fundraise” and claims its aim is to “manipulate people by relentlessly calling on supporters to donate by constantly announcing sensational court cases”.
The NRP said the decision “makes(d) a manifest injustice by showing that unless a person is a human being, they have no right to liberty”.
“Like other social justice movements, we challenge an entrenched status quo that relegates Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Loulou and Jambo to a lifetime of psychological and physical pain,” the group said in a panel. statement.
The NRP’s earlier bid to free an elephant from New York’s Bronx Zoo was rejected after a court ruled she was not legally a human being.
