The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) has attempted, albeit without success, to establish legal rights for animals that correspond to humans. The NRP has applied for writs of habeas corpus to “liberate” animals including primates and more recently, elephants in zoos. The latest case Nonhuman Rights Project v Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Society was heard by the Colorado District Court of El Paso County in early December.
The court dismissed the suit as it was not prepared to establish case law representing a radical radical departure from Colorado law. The court in its ruling stated, “Our laws provide certain protections to animals through animal welfare statues but it is humans who determine the scope of those protections and the laws of this country have never treated animals as “persons” with rights and responsibilities comparable to humans.” The ruling concluded “Results may be different at some time in the future but wishing does not make it so and this Court lacks the authority to create new rights out of thin air.
It was also determined that the NRP had no legal standing to represent the elephants held by the Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Society. The court also determined that the five elephants are held in consistency with existing laws permitting the zoo to hold and display them in accordance with the standards of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the Federal Animal Welfare Act.
The NRP possibly had the greatest chance of establishing human rights in previous cases in New York State involving solitary primates held under less than optimal conditions given their physical and mental welfare.
Courts are obviously reluctant to grant habeas corpus with respect to either confined exotic or domestic animals since this would represent a slippery legal slope. If the legal precedent were to be established, animal rights and welfare organizations would claim conservatorship over individual animals. This would inevitably be extended to domestic animals and then herds and even flocks. The NRP is essentially a stalking horse for organizations opposed to all forms of intensive livestock farming.