Elephants are not people, US judges say
text size

Elephants are not people, US judges say

Animal rights activists’ bid to free animals from unlawful imprisonment in zoo turned down

Listen to this article
Play
Pause
A US court has ruled that while African elephants might be “cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated” they are not people and not covered by the principle of habeas corpus. (Photo: AFP)
A US court has ruled that while African elephants might be “cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated” they are not people and not covered by the principle of habeas corpus. (Photo: AFP)

LOS ANGELES - A bid to get five elephants released from a US zoo has failed after judges ruled the animals are not people so laws on unlawful imprisonment do not apply.

Animal rights campaigners acting on behalf of the elderly African elephants — Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo — wanted a court to free them from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado.

The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) said the creatures should be moved instead to an elephant sanctuary.

But Colorado’s supreme court on Tuesday ruled that only people are covered by the state’s habeas corpus laws.

“Colorado’s habeas statute only applies to persons, and not to nonhuman animals, no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be,” a panel of judges ruled.

“It bears noting that the narrow legal question before this court does not turn on our regard for these majestic animals generally or these five elephants specifically.

“Instead, the legal question here boils down to whether an elephant is a person … and because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim.”

NRP has previously failed in legal efforts to get an elephant named Happy freed from a New York zoo, when another court agreed that the animal was not human.

Habeas corpus is a fundamental principle in legal systems around the world, which holds that no person can be imprisoned illegally.

It has its origins in Magna Carta, a royal charter agreed in 1215 by King John of England, a document widely seen as the first brake on the absolute monarchies dominant in mediaeval Europe.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (8)