Elephants are not people, Colorado Supreme Court rules

A bid to free five elephants from a Colorado zoo has been rejected after a court ruled the elephants are not human.

An animal rights group claims Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Lulu and Jambo were effectively confined to the zoo and has petitioned to have them moved to an elephant sanctuary.

She tried to file a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of the animals, a legal process that allows a person to challenge their detention in court.

The Colorado Supreme Court said the question came down to “whether an elephant is a person” and therefore has the same rights to freedom as a person — ultimately deciding it was not.

He ruled 6-0 in favor of a previous district court ruling that the state’s habeas corpus process “applies only to persons, not to nonhuman animals.”

That was true “no matter how cognitively, psychologically or socially complex they might be,” state Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter added in her governing.

While she said the five adult African elephants were “magnificent”, the court ruled the claim could not be brought “because an elephant is not a human”.

The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) has petitioned to have the elephants moved from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to an “appropriate elephant sanctuary” in 2023.

The group argues that animals have a right to freedom because they are emotionally complex and intelligent animals.

The elephants are said to be showing signs of “trauma, brain damage and chronic stress” and that they were effectively “confined” at the zoo.

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo dismissed the suit, arguing that the elephants received outstanding care and was supported by a district court.

After the Supreme Court ruling, 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 legal systems to raise funds” and claimed its aim was “to manipulate people into donating to their cause by constantly publishing sensational lawsuits with relentless appeals to supporters to donate.”

The NRP said the decision “perpetuate(d) manifest injustice by stating that unless a person is human, he has no right to freedom.”

“As with other social justice movements, early losses are expected as we challenge the entrenched status quo that allowed Missy, Kimba, Lucky, Lulu and Jambo to be consigned to lives of mental and physical suffering,” the group said in statement.

An earlier bid by 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.