[link removed] [[link removed]]
A photo of an elephant named Kimba standing in the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo elephant exhibit. She is looking out from a sunken exhibit yard behind fencing as zoo visitors look down at her. [[link removed]]
Brief filed in Colorado elephant rights case
Dear John,
The Nonhuman Rights Project has filed an opening brief [[link removed]] in Colorado’s highest court, urging it to reverse a District Court ruling that denied elephants Jambo, Kimba, LouLou, Lucky, and Missy a hearing on the lawfulness of their imprisonment in the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo simply because they’re not human.
As I conveyed to local media yesterday via our press release, it’s the judicial branch’s responsibility to tend to the common law (judge-made law that’s meant to evolve with the times) to achieve justice. It’s not justice to deny autonomous beings the right to liberty simply because of their species membership. As even the District Court acknowledged, the science is clear that our elephant clients are autonomous beings who are suffering immensely and would be better off at a sanctuary. Simply put, the Colorado courts either care about autonomy, as protected by the historic common law writ of habeas corpus, or they don’t.
Like all zoos, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo claims a conservation benefit to holding the elephants in captivity—that keeping elephants in exhibits is necessary to protect elephants in the wild. This is simply wrong. It’s great that the zoo sends $75,000 a year (a fraction of their net assets, which in 2022 were $103 million) to the Tsavo Trust, which does conservation work in Africa. But it’s neither necessary nor just to subject Jambo, Kimba, LouLou, Lucky, and Missy to enormous physical and mental suffering in order to do it, nor is it educational to put this suffering on display.
As a wealthy institution, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has vastly more resources than we do to wage this legal fight. If you can, please donate today to help make the fight for Jambo, Kimba, LouLou, Lucky, and Missy’s right to bodily liberty and release to a sanctuary as strong as it can be. [[link removed]]
DONATE → [[link removed]]
Background and details
Jambo, Kimba, LouLou, Lucky, and Missy were born in the wilderness in Africa, stolen from their familial herds when they were young, and imported to the US in the 1970s and 1980s. Among the elephant experts who have submitted expert declarations in support of the elephants’ right to bodily liberty and release to a sanctuary is Dr. Bob Jacobs, a former professor of neuroscience at Colorado College who has studied the neurological harm of zoo captivity on elephants. The appellate record contains his testimony of having observed the CMZ elephants engaging in behavior indicative of chronic distress and trauma, including rocking, swaying, and head bobbing. Elephants living freely in their natural habitats have never been observed exhibiting such behaviors. “From a neural perspective,” Dr. Jacobs writes in his declaration, “imprisoning large mammals and putting them on display is undeniably cruel.”
Appellate courts–and state supreme courts in particular–are the key forums for hearing novel questions of laws like ours. The NhRP’s appeal marks the first time Colorado’s highest court will be in a position to rule on arguments concerning a nonhuman animal’s right to liberty.
In addition to requesting that the Colorado Supreme Court reverse the District Court’s ruling, the NhRP is asking for the case to be remanded (i.e. sent down) to the District Court, with instructions to hold a hearing on the merits of the NhRP’s petition. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo will have the opportunity to respond to the NhRP’s opening brief, and the NhRP will request oral argument.
The Colorado Supreme Court has the utmost responsibility for ensuring that the state’s common law remains in step with science, evolving societal norms, and the fundamental principles of justice, liberty, and equality. With this responsibility in mind, we hope the Court will take this opportunity to reject the archaic, unjust status quo that prohibits Jambo, Kimba, LouLou, Lucky, and Missy from challenging their pernicious confinement.
Thank you for your support, and look out for further updates from me on this case in the coming weeks.
Jake Davis
Staff Attorney, the NhRP
[link removed] [[link removed]]
The NhRP is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation (Tax ID #: 04-3289466). It is solely through your donations that we can continue to work for the recognition and protection of fundamental rights for nonhuman animals.
FOLLOW
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
DONATE [[link removed]]
GET YOUR NhRP GEAR AT OUR ONLINE SHOP [[link removed]]
The Nonhuman Rights Project
611 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
#345
Washington, DC 20003
United States
[email protected] [[email protected]]
Click here to unsubscribe. [[link removed]]