A bid to get five elephants released from a US zoo has failed after judges ruled the animals are not people so laws on unlawful imprisonment do not apply.
Animal rights campaigners acting on behalf of elderly African elephants Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo wanted a court to free them from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado.
The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) said the creatures should be moved instead to an elephant sanctuary.
But Colorado’s supreme court on Tuesday ruled that only people are covered 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,” a panel of judges ruled.
“It bears noting that the narrow legal question before this court does not turn on our regard for these majestic animals generally or these five elephants…
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