Zoo elephants in US have no right to freedom as they are not “human”, says landmark legal ruling
The Colorado Supreme Court made the legal judgment during a case this week that called for five elephants held captive at a Colorado zoo to be retired to a sanctuary.
Missy, one of the five elephants held at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado. Credit: Molly Condit
A state court in the US has ruled that captive elephants have no legal right to freedom, during a landmark legal case on behalf of nonhuman animals.
The Colorado Supreme Court made the ruling after hearing arguments that examined whether the elephants confined at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado have the right to liberty and therefore should be released to a sanctuary.
The case was brought to the courts by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), a non-profit organization that works to secure legal rights for animals.
Lawyers from the group centred their argument on the legal concept of habeas corpus, a centuries-old common law right that protects a citizen from unlawful imprisonment.
While every human citizen has a right to habeas corpus, the case hinged on whether this legal right extends to non-human citizens like elephants.
LouLou, one of the five elephants held at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado. Credit: Molly Condit
“Elephants shouldn’t be deprived of justice simply because they aren’t human,” said Jake Davis, the NhRP attorney who argued on behalf of the five elephants currently held at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
According to Davis, all five of the zoo’s elephants have been observed engaging in behavior scientifically known to indicate chronic stress and trauma caused by captivity.
During the legal hearing, the court listened as Davis explained how scientific evidence shows that elephants are autonomous (able to make their own decisions) and that it should be the Court’s duty under the common law to protect autonomy.
However, the Colorado Supreme Court has now issued its opinion on the case, and dismissed the idea of extending the legal right of habeas corpus onto non-human animals.
In its judgement, the Court said that habeas corpus “only applies to persons, and not to nonhuman animals, no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be.”
LouLou, inside her inside enclosure at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado. Credit: Molly Condit
Reacting to the ruling, the NhRP said that the court’s opinion perpetuates a clear injustice in recognising how mentally sophisticated animals can be yet denying them their right to liberty.
But the advocacy group also pointed out that the outcome is not a complete surprise. “As with other social justice movements, early losses are expected as we challenge an entrenched status quo that has allowed [the zoo’s five elephants] Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo to be relegated to a lifetime of mental and physical suffering,” the NhRP said in a statement.
The five elephants had all been born in the wild in Africa, where they were taken from their herds as babies and imported to captivity in the US during the 1970s and 1980s.
Whilst the case was not able to grant these elephants the freedom to live in a sanctuary, its hearing at a state high court is a sign of progress for greater legal consideration of nonhuman animals.
“At its core, this case is about something very simple: allowing these elephants to be elephants again, at least as much as is humanly possible given they can no longer be released to the natural habitats they were taken from,” Christopher Berry, an attorney for the NhRP, said during the initial hearing. “It’s also much bigger than that. This hearing [...] shows that calls for justice for nonhuman animals are finally being heard, discussed, and considered. [T]his hearing is a watershed moment for nonhuman animals and the nonhuman animal rights movement.”
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