The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that elephants are not people

A bid to free five elephants from a Colorado zoo has been rejected after a court ruled the elephants are not human.

An animal welfare group claimed that Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Lulu and Jamba were effectively imprisoned at the zoo and called for them to be moved to an elephant sanctuary.

He tried to file a habeas corpus lawsuit on behalf of the animals, a legal process that allows a person to challenge their detention in court.

The Colorado Supreme Court said the question came down to “whether an elephant is a person” and thus has the same liberty rights as a person – ultimately deciding that they do not.

It ruled 6-0 in favor of an earlier district court ruling that said the state’s habeas corpus process “applies only to persons, not animals.”

That was true “regardless of how cognitively, psychologically or socially sophisticated they are,” state Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter added in her ruling.

While she said the five elderly African elephants were “magnificent”, the court ruled the lawsuit could not be brought “because an elephant is not a person”.

The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) has petitioned for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s elephants to be moved to a “suitable elephant sanctuary” in 2023.

The group argued that animals have a right to freedom because they are emotionally complex and intelligent animals.

It claimed that the elephants showed signs of “trauma, brain damage and chronic stress” and that they were effectively “imprisoned” at the zoo.

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo dismissed the lawsuit, arguing that the elephants received excellent care, and was upheld by the district court.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo called the NRP’s lawsuit “frivolous” and said it had “wasted” time and money on the case.

He accused the group of “abusing the judicial system to raise funds” and claimed its aim was to “manipulate people into donating to their cause by constantly publishing high-profile court cases with relentless appeals to supporters to donate”.

The NRP said the ruling “perpetuates (d) the manifest injustice of declaring that if a person is not a person, they have no right to liberty.”

“As with other social justice movements, early casualties are expected as we challenge the entrenched status quo that has allowed Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Lulu and Jambo to suffer a lifetime of mental and physical suffering,” it said. in a group message. statement

An earlier bid by the NRP to release an elephant named Happy from the Bronx Zoo in New York was rejected after a court ruled she was not a legal entity.