Should elephants have the same rights as people? A US court may decide
Animal rights group is trying to release elephants from what they say is essentially a prison for such highly intelligent and social animals
Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo have lived in Colorado Springs for decades in the elephant exhibit at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
Now an animal rights group is trying to release the elephants from what they say is essentially a prison for such highly intelligent and social animals known to roam for miles a day in the wild.
Colorado’s highest court will hear arguments on Thursday on whether the older African female elephants should be legally able to challenge their captivity under a long-held process used by prisoners to dispute their detention.
They are suffering immensely and unnecessarily. Without judicial intervention, they are doomed to suffer
The animal rights group NonHuman Rights Project claim the animals are languishing while “unlawfully confined” at the zoo, and wants them released to an unspecified elephant sanctuary.
“They are suffering immensely and unnecessarily,” a lawyer for the group, Jake Davis, said in a May brief submitted to the Colorado Supreme Court.
“Without judicial intervention, they are doomed to suffer day after day, year after year, for the rest of their lives.”
The main legal issue is whether the elephants are considered people under the law, and therefore able to pursue a petition of habeas corpus challenging their detention.
