Meet Our New Clients
Dear John,

The Nonhuman Rights Project has filed a habeas corpus petition [[link removed]] in the San Francisco Superior Court demanding the right to liberty and release to sanctuary of three elephants held in captivity at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in California.

Last month, In Defense of Animals named the Fresno Chaffee Zoo one of The 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants in North America [[link removed]] .

The NhRP is initially requesting an Order to Show Cause under the state’s common law of habeas corpus—in other words, for the San Francisco Superior Court to require the Fresno Chaffee Zoo to come before the Court to attempt to justify the continued imprisonment of elephants Nolwazi, Amahle, and Vusmusi. The NhRP has secured the world’s first such orders on behalf of nonhuman animals in our New York chimpanzee and elephant rights cases.

Learn about Nolwazi, Amahle, and Vusmusi and read our filings on their court case timeline [[link removed]] .

Sign and share their new Change.org petition [[link removed]] .

Seven of the world’s most renowned elephant scientists with expertise on elephant cognition, including Dr. Joyce Poole [[link removed]] and Dr. Keith Lindsay [[link removed]] , have submitted affidavits in support of the NhRP’s habeas petition, which brings together centuries of case law including landmark common law and civil rights cases, the science of elephant cognition, the origin of legal rights, judicial rulings from outside the US that have granted rights to nonhuman animals, and ethical arguments against elephant captivity.

This lawsuit is as much about the suffering of our clients, who need and deserve to live freely, as it is ensuring we continue to expand–as a matter of justice and rightly evolving social norms–who counts as a rights-holder.

We’re excited to be bringing the fight for nonhuman animal rights to California, a state with a powerful history of protecting the vulnerable and disenfranchised, at a time when the issue of nonhuman animals’ legal status is part of a broader public conversation to an extent it’s never been before [[link removed]] . Judges are beginning to rigorously consider nonhuman rights for the first time–in some cases, ruling boldly to recognize nonhuman animals as rights-holders. We believe it’s time for the California courts to consider the Fresno Chaffee Zoo elephants’ fundamental right to liberty.

We invite you to learn more about our new clients on a Zoom seminar [[link removed]] with me (the NhRP lawyer who’ll be arguing their case) and my colleague Courtney Fern (who’ll be leading the grassroots campaign for their freedom) on Monday, May 9th at 3 p.m. ET. RSVP and find details here [[link removed]] .

Thank you for your support for elephants’ right to liberty!

Click here [[link removed]] to share this email as a blog post.

Jake Davis
Staff Attorney, the NhRP

P.S. Please join us on May 18th for a historic hearing and rally [[link removed]] in Happy's elephant rights case!

DONATE NOW » [[link removed]]


The Nonhuman Rights Project
5195 NW 112th Terrace
Coral Springs, FL 33076
United States
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