The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that five elephants at a Colorado zoo have no legal right to seek release because they are not human.
The court said the ruling “does not erase our respect for these majestic animals.”
“Rather, the legal question here ultimately boils down to whether elephants are human beings,” the court said. “And the elephants here are not entitled to habeas corpus because they are not human beings.”
If the court had ruled in their favor, the elephants Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Lulu, and Jumbo at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs would have moved forward with a legal process that would allow prisoners to challenge their detention. He would have been moved to a zoo. Elephant sanctuary.
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Elephants Kimba (front) and Lucky (back) at a zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, via AP)
The ruling comes after a similar case in New York in 2022, in which a court also ruled against an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo.
Both lawsuits were filed by the animal rights group Nonhuman Rights Project.
The group said the elephant in the Colorado incident was born in the African wild and showed signs of brain damage. That's because zoos are essentially prisons for intelligent, social animals that roam many miles a day in the wild.
The group had called for the elephants to be released into one of two certified elephant sanctuaries in the United States, fearing that they would no longer be able to survive in the wild.
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Getty Images)
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo argued that relocating the elephant and placing it with new animals would be cruel given its age and could cause unnecessary stress. The animals are not used to large herds and do not have the skills or desire to join them, the zoo said.
The zoo praised the ruling, saying the legal battle over the issue was disappointing and accusing the Human Rights Project of “abusing the court system” to raise funds.
“Their real goal is to manipulate people into donating to their cause by relentlessly promoting sensational court cases and persistently soliciting donations from supporters,” the zoo said in a statement. It seems so.''
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Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs held a day camp for children called Summer Safari Camp. (Getty Images)
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The Non-Human Rights Project said the latest ruling “perpetuates a clear injustice” and predicted that in future cases the court would reject the idea that only humans have the right to freedom.
“Like other social justice movements, we anticipate early losses as we challenge the entrenched status quo that allowed Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Lulu, and Jumbo to suffer mentally and physically for the rest of their lives.” ” he said. statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
