![]() court recognized a herd of hippopotamuses originally brought to Colombia by the drug lord Pablo Escobar as “interested persons” in a lawsuit that would prevent their extermination. The chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, in Pakistan, asserted that nonhuman animals have rights when he ordered the release of an elephant named Kaavan, along with other zoo animals, to sanctuaries he even recommended the teaching of animal welfare in schools, as part of Islamic studies. In Argentina, a judge ruled that an orangutan at the Buenos Aires Eco-Park, named Sandra, was a “nonhuman person” and entitled to freedom-which, in practical terms, meant being sent to a sanctuary in Florida. In 2013, the government of India banned the capture and confinement of dolphins and orcas, because cetaceans have been proved to be sensitive and highly intelligent, and “should be seen as ‘non-human persons’ ” with “their own specific rights.” The governments of Hungary, Costa Rica, and Chile, among others, have issued similar restrictions, and Finland went so far as to draft a Declaration of Rights for cetaceans. Humanity seems to be edging toward a radical new accommodation with the animal kingdom. However, if the Justice granted the habeas petition to move Happy from the zoo to a sanctuary, in the eyes of the law she would be a person. American law treats all animals as “things”-the same category as rocks or roller skates. The subject of the petition was Happy, an Asian elephant in the Bronx Zoo. Habeas petitions are not often heard in court, which was only one reason that the case before New York Supreme Court Justice Alison Y. ![]() In Bronx County, most such claims arrive on behalf of prisoners on Rikers Island. ![]() According to the civil-law code of the state of New York, a writ of habeas corpus may be obtained by any “person” who has been illegally detained. ![]()
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