By Jacob Factor | KDVR-TV Fox 31 News
“An elephant is not a person” and is not afforded the same liberties as a person under the Colorado Constitution, the Colorado Supreme Court decided Tuesday.
The state’s highest court upheld an El Paso County District Court decision that decided five elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo were not included in state liberty statutes. The petitioner, the Nonhuman Rights Project, had argued the animals should be included and should be moved to a sanctuary “because they are autonomous and extraordinarily cognitively and socially complex beings,” according to the opinion announcement.
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo officials in a statement claimed the Nonhuman Rights Project is “abusing court systems to fundraise” by publicizing “sensational” court cases.