This marks the first time in history that the highest court of any English-speaking jurisdiction will hear a habeas corpus case brought on behalf of someone other than a human being.
COLIN KALMBACHER: The New York Court of Appeals – the highest court in the Empire State–agreed to hear a major animal rights case… The decision marks the first time ever that the highest court in any English-speaking jurisdiction will hear a habeas corpus case for a nonhuman creature… The Bronx County Supreme Court ruled against the effort to secure Happy’s legal personhood and freedom in early 2020 – leading to the current appeal before the highest court in New York State…
In an orders list detailing various recent decisions, the court dispensed with several motions brought by The Nonhuman Rights Project and agreed to hear the habeas corpus case of Happy the elephant, who has been caged at the Bronx Zoo since 1977… Attorneys for the animal rights law firm [The Nonhuman Right Project] have been litigating on the elephant’s behalf since 2018 when they filed for a common law writ of habeas corpus in the New York Supreme Court, Orleans County…
Her advocates insist she’s aware of the lonely state she’s in and note that Happy was the first elephant to ever “pass” the mirror self-recognition test, which zoological and psychological experts consider a reliable indicator of self-awareness…
That original petition demanded recognition of legal personhood and fundamental right to bodily liberty for the “autonomous” pachyderm “[who is] being unlawfully imprisoned solely because she is an elephant.” Attorneys also demanded that Happy be removed from the zoo, where she lives in something akin to isolation, and allowed to live the rest of her life in an elephant sanctuary.
The 50-year-old elephant has been living alone at the zoo for years and attorneys say her “case will turn on whether an extraordinarily cognitively complex” nonhuman animal has legally cognizable rights and protections under the ever-shifting New York common law. SOURCE…
[The Nonhuman Rights Project released the following statement]:
Today, the New York Court of Appeals — one of the most influential state courts in the United States—agreed to hear the habeas corpus case of our elephant client Happy, an autonomous and cognitively complex nonhuman animal who has been imprisoned at the Bronx Zoo for over four decades. This marks the first time in history that the highest court of any English-speaking jurisdiction will hear a habeas corpus case brought on behalf of someone other than a human being…
Happy’s case has been supported from the start by leading scientists, philosophers, habeas corpus scholars, legal experts, theologians, and the wider public throughout the country and the world. Having begun the fight for nonhuman rights in New York eight years ago, we are thrilled the Court of Appeals has recognized the urgent public importance of Happy’s case and hope she will soon become the first elephant and nonhuman animal in the US to have her right to bodily liberty judicially recognized. SOURCE…
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