"The legal question here boils down to whether an elephant is a person," stated the Colorado Supreme Court. "And because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim."
The court was ruling on whether lawyers Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jamb—elephants in captivity at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo—could use a well-established legal process typically available to human prisoners to contest the pachyderms' confinement. The case was initiated by the Nonhuman Rights Project, an animal rights group that previously launched a similar legal effort for Happy, an elephant at the Bronx Zoo.
From the Associated Press:
The group argued that the Colorado elephants, born in the wild in Africa, have shown signs of brain damage because the zoo is essentially a prison for such intelligent and social creatures, known to roam for miles a day. It wanted the animals released to one of the two accredited elephant sanctuaries in the United States because the group doesn't think they can no longer live in the wild.
"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," it said in a statement.
(via Dave Pell's NextDraft)
Previously:
• Emily the elephant plays drums
• An elephant's prehensile penis is like a second trunk
• Man with stick calmly convinces charging elephant not to run him over
• The sad, strange story of a taxidermied elephant