By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Five elderly African elephants at a Colorado zoo will remain there, after the state’s highest court said the animals had no legal right to demand their release because they were not man.

Tuesday’s 6-0 decision by the Colorado Supreme Court means that Jambo, Kimba, LouLou, Lucky and Missy will remain at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs.

This follows a similar decision in 2022 by New York state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, that another elderly elephant, Happy, should remain at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.

An animal rights group, the Nonhuman Rights Project, brought two cases for the elephants under a legal doctrine known as “habeas corpus,” which states that the animals must live in the sanctuary.

Citing affidavits from seven animal biologists, the group told the Colorado court that elephants are highly social and mobile, have many of the cognitive abilities of humans including empathy and self-awareness, and when confined in zoos experience boredom and stress that can lead to brain damage. .

But the court said that Colorado’s habeas statute applies to humans, not to nonhuman animals “regardless of how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be”.

It also said that the concession of the Nonhuman Rights Project during the oral argument that it only seeks different confinement, not full freedom, as elephants is another reason to treat them differently.

The case “does not draw our attention to these majestic animals in general or to these five elephants in particular,” wrote Justice Maria Berkenkotter. “Because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim.”

In a statement, the Nonhuman Rights Project said the decision “perpetuates a clear injustice” that has committed the five elephants to “a lifetime of mental and physical suffering.” It has yet to determine its next legal steps.

John Suthers, a zoo attorney, noted in the court’s finding that lawmakers, not judges, are in the best position to expand legal rights to nonhuman animals.

Berkenkotter said that counting animals as people is a “huge change” that one would expect lawmakers to declare if they really do.