'Elephants are not people': US court rules in zoo case

A legal effort to have five elephants released from a US zoo was unsuccessful after judges ruled that animals do not qualify for protection under habeas corpus laws, which apply only to people, AFP reported.

Animal rights advocates from the Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) had sought to have the elephants — Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo — freed from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado and relocated to an elephant sanctuary.

However, Colorado's Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that only humans are protected by the state's habeas corpus laws. "Colorado's habeas statute only applies to persons, and not to nonhuman animals, no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be," the panel of judges stated.

The ruling emphasised that the case's focus was not on the treatment of the elephants but on whether an elephant could be considered a "person" under the law.

"Instead, the legal question here boils down to whether an elephant is a person... and because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim," the judges explained.

NRP had previously failed in a similar case to free an elephant named Happy from a New York zoo, with another court upholding that animals are not entitled to habeas corpus protections. Habeas corpus, a principle rooted in the Magna Carta, ensures that individuals cannot be unlawfully imprisoned.