The Non-human Rights Project (NRP) a frequent initiator of litigation to recognize legal rights for zoo and laboratory animals is now attempting to obtain special status for elephants in the Fresno Zoo.

The California Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a case in which the court ruled that logically “animals were animals”. In the past, the rights organization has attempted to obtain status for chimpanzees and elephants in different jurisdictions including the state of New York without success.

If the NRP is successful in its quest for a beneficial ruling there would be a field day of habeas corpus applications extending across all confined wild animals and eventually extending to livestock. This would be an untenable outcome miring production of meat and dairy products in an endless round of legal actions.