Elephants are not people, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled

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

An animal rights group argued that Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo had been imprisoned at the zoo and demanded that they be moved to an elephant sanctuary.

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

The Colorado Supreme Court said the issue was “whether or not an elephant is a person” and therefore has the same liberty rights as a human, ultimately not deciding.

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

This was true “no matter how cognitively, psychologically or socially sophisticated they may be,” added state Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter. the verdict.

Although he said the five old African elephants were “majestic”, the court ruled that the claim could not be made because “an elephant is not a person”.

The Human Rights Project (NRP) called for the elephants to be moved from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to a “proper elephant sanctuary” in 2023.

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

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

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo dismissed the claim, arguing that the elephants received excellent care, and a district court upheld it.

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

He has accused the group of “abusing the court system to raise funds” and claimed its aim is to “manipulate people into donating to their cause”, constantly publicizing sensational court cases with constant appeals to supporters to donate.

The NRP said the decision “perpetuates a clear injustice, that an individual other than a human being has no right to freedom”.

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

NRP’s bid to release an elephant named Happy from New York’s Bronx Zoo was rejected after a court ruled that he was not legally a person.