Five elephants at a Colorado zoo do not have the legal right to pursue their release because they are not human, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
The court said the decision “does not turn on our regard for these majestic animals.”
“Instead, the legal question here boils down to whether an elephant is a person,” the court said. “And because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim.”
If the court had ruled in their favor, the elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs — Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo — could have pursued a legal process that allows prisoners to challenge their detention and they would have been transferred to an elephant sanctuary.
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Elephants Kimba, front, and Lucky, back, at the Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Cheyenne Mountain Zoo via AP)
The ruling comes after a similar case in New York in 2022, when a court also ruled against an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo.
Both cases were brought by Nonhuman Rights Project, an animal rights group.
The group argued that the elephants in the Colorado case, which were born in the wild in Africa, have displayed signs of brain damage because the zoo is essentially a prison for the intelligent and social animals that roam for miles a day in the wild.
It had sought for the animals to be released to one of the two accredited elephant sanctuaries in the U.S. over concerns that they could no longer live in the wild.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Getty Images)
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo contested that moving the elephants and potentially placing them with new animals would be cruel at their age, and could cause unnecessary stress. The zoo said the animals are not used to being in larger herds and do not have the skills or desire to join one.
The zoo applauded the ruling and said the legal fight over the issue was disappointing, accusing the Nonhuman Rights Project of “abusing court systems” for fundraising.
“It seems their real goal is to manipulate people into donating to their cause by incessantly publicizing sensational court cases with relentless calls for supporters to donate,” the zoo said in a statement.
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The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs held a day camp for kids called Summer Safari Camp. (Getty Images)
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The Nonhuman Rights Project said the latest ruling “perpetuates a clear injustice” and predicted that courts in future cases would reject the idea that only humans have a right to liberty.
“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,” the group said in a statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
