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By Marti Trgovich
Editor and Writer
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On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that five wild-born zoo elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo do not have a right to liberty.
The lawsuit, filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), sought a writ of habeas corpus for the five animals, which would have allowed the NhRP to fight for their release and send them to a sanctuary.
However, the court ruled that "no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated [elephants] may be," habeas corpus only applies to people.
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The concept of personhood actually sounds more outlandish than it is, especially when corporations technically have personhood—so, why not sentient four-legged creatures?
This case involved Jambo, Kimba, LouLou, Lucky, and Missy, five elephants in their 40s and 50s held at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, where the NhRP has argued they have inadequate enrichment and only room to walk less than 100 yards in any direction.
Stolen from the wild in Africa as babies, these elephants were separated from their families and brought to the United States. After years in zoos, a sanctuary "would allow them to maximize their autonomy to the fullest extent possible," a lawyer for the NhRP argued in court. (After so many years of captivity, they would not be able to survive in the wild.)
Zoos have, of course, long been popular in American culture. I spent my childhood taking trips to the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld because my family and I loved animals. We did not consider, in the 1980s, that animals were being detained and often stolen from their own families, and I'm embarrassed that we didn't.
While it's important to note that the occasional zoo does good rescue work, the majority prioritize profits. There is a myth perpetuated by many zoos that we must continue to exhibit elephants to conserve wild populations. But if American zoos did such an amazing job of conserving this species, why have wild populations of African elephants declined by more than two-thirds since the 1970s? Poaching and habitat loss are causes, of course, but zoos don't do anything to restore those numbers.
What's more, breeding in captivity is a disaster. In a heartbreaking statistic, captive elephant pregnancies (most artificially inseminated) have a 40 percent infant mortality rate. That's not conservation; it's an attempt to breed more elephants for profit.
Zoos also perpetuate the myth of happy elephants, but this, too, is a lie. The well-known image of a captive elephant swaying in their enclosure is easy to mistake as a sweet "dance," but in reality it's a sign of psychosis; other research has also found brain damage from captivity. Given that elephants in the wild are known to walk up to 30 miles a day or more, it's not surprising that elephants with limited acreage to roam are subject to psychological distress, not to mention physical problems, like arthritis and foot abscesses.
It's understandable that the idea of "personhood" being granted to a pachyderm might seem ridiculous at first, but is it really when elephants' brains have a structure similar to that of humans? We know that their cerebral cortex is well-developed, and we know they experience grief and can suffer from PTSD.
The court owed it to these elephants to do better. As humans, we do have power over nonhuman animals, and with that power comes the responsibility to take care of them and put their well-being above profits. The court failed to make a decision Tuesday that respected their intelligence and sentience.
Marti Trgovich was the executive managing editor at animal brand The Dodo for eight years, where she was in charge of standards and advocacy. Her work has appeared in TheWashington Post*,* The New York Times*, and* Kinship*.*
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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