Should elephants have the same rights as people? A Colorado court may decide

Denver7 ^ | 10-24-24 | AP

[dynachrome]

Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo have lived in Colorado Springs for decades in the elephant exhibit at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Now an animal rights group is trying to release the elephants from what they say is essentially a prison for such highly intelligent and social animals known to roam for miles a day in the wild.

Colorado's highest court will hear arguments Thursday on whether the older African female elephants should be legally able to challenge their captivity under a long-held process used by prisoners to dispute their detention. The animal rights group NonHuman Rights Project says the animals are languishing while “unlawfully confined” at the zoo, and wants them released to an unspecified elephant sanctuary.

“They are suffering immensely and unnecessarily. Without judicial intervention, they are doomed to suffer day after day, year after year, for the rest of their lives,” a lawyer for the group, Jake Davis, said in a May brief submitted to the Colorado Supreme Court.

The main legal issue is whether or not the elephants are considered persons under the law, and therefore able to pursue a petition of habeas corpus challenging their detention. The NonHuman Rights project argues that legal personhood is not limited to humans.

[wardaddy]

Up to a point I’d say so given they are pretty cool

But Americans don’t realize outside the big ears African version they are considered like a mule in Asia

A valuable front end loader u feed

A lot of food

Big poops

[NorthMountain]

From The Bad Child's Book of Beasts, by Hilaire Belloc.

The Elephant

When people call this beast to mind,
They marvel more and more
At such a

little tail behind,

So LARGE a trunk before.

[wardaddy]

A dog on a generous but lite line can be spared a violent death by a car or truck

And some large bull breeds need a chain or strong cable

Tie a master line maybe 100-200 feet tween trees and the collar line of say 30-40 feet that travels the master

There are worse fates for a dog

Or stake securely a long line works too in a field

Now serious pulling dogs like Scott style American bulldogs can snap a large logging chain after many hard snap tugs

On my farm mine roamed the property

Now renting a smallish ranch house they live inside or car with me daily

In fact I just put the big Rott and Chorgi mini me in the infinity suv

Lazy Rott had to be picked up 140 pounds

I’m 67 almost lol

And some dogs like their kennel

[wardaddy]

I just saw”wild” animals

I’m so stupid

[drSteve78]

Elevator rights

[blueplum]

I’m going a little contrarian here. It’s time to deport elephants to their native countries. Zoos for the most part are obsolete relics of the past when people couldn’t travel and didn’t have livestream internet. Elephants are not human but they are highly sapient mammals, the females especially forming complex generational relationships and as such should be in reserves not zoos. Males require more maintenance because they go thru extreme ‘road rage’ every year but can still be managed safely in reserves; there’s no legitimate reason any more to have elephant breeding programs in zoos. Free the elephants.

Beetovan Elephant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4AcjvsVn5k
Debussy Elephant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1qQOGCyRbY

[Georgia Girl 2]

So this zoo is the #5 best zoo in North America. I just went to their website. The enclosures look roomy and very clean. The elephants don’t have to worry about Lions or Poachers or dried up water holes.

[Tymesup]

Daddy, what’s that hanging down from the elephant?
Son, that’s the elephant’s trunk.
Daddy, no, in the back?
Son, that’s the elephant’s tail.
Daddy, no, underneath?
Son, that’s the elephant’s penis.
Daddy, Mommy said that’s nothing.
Son, your mother is a very spoiled woman.

There was an area where the big, mature male elephants had been killed by poachers. The younger male elephants were running wild, and giving the rhinoceri a hard time. They brought in some old bulls, who restored order. Sounds like humans to me.

What do you get if you cross an elephant and a rhino? Elefino.

[HandyDandy]

Q. What did the elephant say to the naked man?

A. How do you breath through that little thing?

[Tymesup]

I almost posted that one, too.

The elephant’s penis moves on its own. 5 tons of thrusting elephant would be difficult to accommodate.

The male elephant’s trunk reaches as high as a giraffe’s tongue. If the branch is too high, an elephant can knock the tree down.