Colorado Court Denies Legal Rights to Zoo Elephants, Citing Non-Human Status

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that five elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs do not possess the legal standing to pursue their release, citing their non-human status, The Associated Press reports.

The decision effectively ends a legal challenge by an animal rights group seeking to have the elephants moved to an animal sanctuary.

The ruling comes after a similar legal setback in New York in 2022, where a court rejected the attempt to grant legal personhood to an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo. The Nonhuman Rights Project, the same animal rights group that pursued the New York case, had argued that Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo, the five elephants in Colorado, deserved the right to challenge their detention through a legal process typically used for human prisoners. If successful, this legal maneuver could have led to the elephants being moved to an elephant sanctuary.

However, the Colorado court clarified that its decision “does not turn on our regard for these majestic animals.” Instead, the crux of the matter was whether an elephant could be legally defined as a person. “And because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim,” the court stated in its ruling.

The Nonhuman Rights Project had argued that the elephants, all born in the wild in Africa, have displayed signs of brain damage due to the limitations of their zoo environment. They further emphasized the animals’ intelligence and social nature, stating that the restricted environment of the zoo essentially amounts to a prison for creatures that would normally roam for miles daily. They proposed releasing the elephants to one of two accredited elephant sanctuaries in the United States, reasoning that they could no longer safely return to the wild.

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, however, strongly opposed the proposed relocation, arguing that moving the elephants at their age and integrating them into a new herd would be cruel and cause unnecessary stress. The zoo further argued that the elephants, based on their observations, lack the skills and desire to join larger herds and would find integration to be a traumatic experience.

The zoo expressed its relief with the court’s decision, but also criticized the Nonhuman Rights Project, accusing them of “abusing court systems” for fundraising purposes. They claimed the group was using “sensational court cases with relentless calls for supporters to donate” to manipulate people into supporting their cause.

In response, the Nonhuman Rights Project issued a statement that they felt the court’s ruling “perpetuates a clear injustice.” They predicted future courts would reject the idea that only humans can have a right to liberty. “