It ruled 6-0 in favor of an earlier district court ruling that said the state’s habeas corpus process “applies only to persons, not animals.”
That was true “regardless of how cognitively, psychologically or socially sophisticated they are,” state Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter added in her ruling, external.
While she said the five elderly African elephants were “magnificent”, the court ruled the lawsuit could not be brought “because an elephant is not a person”.
The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) has petitioned for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s elephants to be moved to a “suitable elephant sanctuary” in 2023.
The group argued that animals have a right to freedom because they are emotionally complex and intelligent animals.
It claimed that the elephants showed signs of “trauma, brain damage and chronic stress” and that they were effectively “imprisoned” at the zoo.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo dismissed the lawsuit, arguing that the elephants received excellent care, and was upheld by the district court.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo called the NRP’s lawsuit “frivolous” and said it had “wasted” time and money on the case.
He accused the group of “abusing the judicial system to raise funds” and claimed its aim was to “manipulate people into donating to their cause by constantly publishing high-profile court cases with relentless appeals to supporters to donate”.
The NRP said the ruling “perpetuates the manifest injustice of declaring that if a person is not human, they have no right to liberty.”
“As with other social justice movements, early casualties are expected as we challenge the entrenched status quo that allowed Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Lulu and Jambo to suffer a lifetime of mental and physical suffering,” it said. in the message groups. statement., external
An earlier bid by the NRP to release an elephant named Happy from the Bronx Zoo in New York was rejected after a court ruled she was not a legal entity.
