Colorado Court Rules Elephants Not Humans, NGO Cries Injustice
Colorado’s top court ruled on Tuesday that five elephants at a zoo in the United States are not considered people, and therefore lack the human right to be released from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
The Colorado Supreme Court determined that the elephants – Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo – as non-human animals, are not entitled to “habeas corpus.” This legal concept allows humans to claim unlawful detention in court and seek their release.
The court asserted that “habeas corpus did not apply to non-human animals, no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be.”
The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP), which initiated the case, expressed disappointment in the ruling, stating that the court’s opinion “perpetuates a clear injustice.” The organization argued that the elephants, born in the wild in Africa, deserve the right to liberty as they are autonomous beings with extraordinary cognitive and social complexities.
The NRP aimed to have the elephants relocated to an accredited elephant sanctuary in the United States.
“As with other social justice movements, early losses are expected as we challenge an entrenched status quo that has allowed Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo to be relegated to a lifetime of mental and physical suffering,” the NRP commented following the judgment.
The zoo has countered the claims made by the NRP, asserting that the elephants are “receiving anything short of remarkable care.”
