Colorado Supreme Court sides with Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in appeal over elephant rights

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The Colorado Supreme Court has sided with the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo after an animal rights organization sued the group, alleging violations were made against five elephants.
The lawsuit, filed last year, claimed the zoo’s enclosures only allow the animals to move around 100 yards in any direction, and that the elephants are "exhibiting troubling behaviors caused by chronic stress and trauma.”
The plaintiffs, the Nonhuman Rights Project, grounded their lawsuit in claims that elephants have bodily liberty protected by habeas corpus.
According to Cornell Law School, a writ of habeas corpus is used to determine whether a person's imprisonment is lawful. However, historically, it has been used to protect the rights of humans-- not animals.
A district court sided with Cheyenne Mountain Zoo last year, but the plaintiffs appealed the decision, taking the case to the Colorado Supreme Court. On Tuesday, Justice Berkenkotter upheld the lower court's decision.
"We conclude that the district court correctly held that Colorado’s habeas statute only applies to persons, and not to nonhuman animals, no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be," wrote Justice Maria Berkenkotter in an opinion.
This Colorado Supreme Court opinion perpetuates a clear injustice, stating that unless an individual is human they have no right to liberty, “no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be.” Future courts will reject this notion, as judges in the United States and around the world have already begun to do. 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. We’ll share further analysis of this opinion as well as our next steps in the coming days.
-Nonhuman Rights Project
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo sent out a statement which read, in part:
Some of our supporters were surprised that NhRP chose to attack Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, of all places. We have consistently ranked as a top-five zoo in the nation by popular vote. Last year, we celebrated raising $5 million for frontline conservation efforts, including over a million dollars for African elephants. Our national recognition as a leader in animal care and conservation is likely what drew their attention to us. Our latest accreditation was historic. In nearly 50 years of AZA accreditations, CMZoo was only the fourth organization to earn a completely ‘clean’ report, which means there wasn’t a single major or minor concern reported – including in the strenuous review of our elephant care program.
-Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
This is not the first time the Nonhuman Rights Project has sued under the same premise, arguing habeas corpus applies to animals. Previously, they sued the Bronx Zoo over the captivity of an elephant in New York.
In the New York case, the plaintiffs compared the enclosure of animals to the enslavement of people.