Should Elephants Have the Same Rights as Humans?

Now an animal welfare organisation is attempting to free the elephants from what it considers to be virtually a prison for these highly intelligent and social animals, which in the wild can roam miles each day.

The Colorado Supreme Court will decide on 24 October 2024 whether the elderly African female elephants should legally be able to challenge their captivity under a long-established procedure used by prisoners to contest their detention.

Habeas Corpus Lawsuit for Elephants

The animal welfare organisation NonHuman Rights Project claims that the animals in the zoo are “unlawfully imprisoned” and is calling for their release to an unspecified elephant sanctuary.

“They are suffering immeasurably and unnecessarily. Without judicial intervention, they are condemned to suffer day after day, year after year, for the rest of their lives,” said the group’s attorney, Jake Davis, in a brief filed with the Colorado Supreme Court in May.

The most important legal point of contention is the question of whether the elephants are considered persons under the law and therefore able to file a habeas corpus petition against their detention. The NonHuman Rights Project argues that legal personhood is not limited to humans. The debate around animal rights is gaining legal relevance worldwide.

Precedent from New York

The lawsuit resembles an unsuccessful lawsuit the group filed in 2022 against the captivity of an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo. The New York Court of Appeals ruled that Happy, despite being intelligent and deserving of compassion, cannot be considered an illegally imprisoned person with the ability to file a petition for release.

The New York ruling states that granting such rights to an elephant would have “enormous destabilizing effects on modern society” and would change the way humans interact with animals.

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo states that relocating the elephants and potentially housing them with new animals at their age would be cruel and could cause them unnecessary stress. The elephants are not accustomed to living in larger herds, and based on the zoo’s experience, they have neither the skills nor the desire to join one.

In a statement ahead of the October 24, 2024 hearing, the zoo claimed that the NonHuman Rights Project is not concerned about the elephants but is merely attempting to establish a legal precedent that would allow the captivity of any animal to be challenged. The keeping of wild animals in zoos remains a central animal welfare issue.

Further articles

• Zoos cause more harm to animals than you may realize
• Justice for zoo animals
• Is it time to ban zoos?
• Finland: Zoo wants to send giant pandas back to China due to maintenance costs
• The keeping of elephants in zoos must finally come to an end!
• Killing surplus animals – zoos are failing at species conservation