On Thurs., Oct. 24, the Colorado Supreme Court will hear oral arguments from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s legal counsel and the NonHuman Rights Project (NhRP) on the frivolous elephant lawsuit filed against CMZoo last summer.
As our community already knows, at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, we take excellent care of our beloved elephants. The NhRP’s case is not about our elephant care. Their goal is to establish a court precedent granting habeas corpus to any animal. Our elephants are just the next target on their list of failed attempts at setting this precedent.
NhRP is an out-of-state extreme animal rights organization known in the Zoo profession for wasting credible organizations’ time and money with misguided lawsuits. This manipulative fundraising act aims to upset and mislead people who care about animals.
Our community of animal advocates sees through their attempts, and our community has continued to show up for elephants. By visiting Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, every guest makes a direct impact on wildlife conservation. Since 2008, our guests and members have raised more than $5 million for conservation around the world, just by visiting the Zoo. We recently surpassed a huge milestone for elephant conservation: $1 million raised to help our conservation partner, Tsavo Trust, protect African elephants in Tsavo National Park, in Kenya.
NhRP is claiming that the five female African elephants who have been in our care for decades should ‘go free,’ but also claims they should go to a sanctuary, where they would remain in human care. Transport to another facility, whether it’s called a sanctuary or a zoo, would not remove them from human care. It would force them to endure a potentially stressful move and resettling, possibly with other elephants, in a new setting with a new care team. At their ages, and with their various age-related ailments, a move like this would be cruel. But, again, NhRP, is not concerned about our individual elephants’ care.
Our elephant care team knows the needs of our elephants, and tailors specific health and exercise programs based on each elephant’s needs and preferences. Suggesting they’d be better off at a sanctuary is simply incorrect. Popular opinions about what’s considered best for elephants in general or in the wild are not what’s best for Jambo, Missy, LouLou, Kimba or Lucky.
For example, wild elephants are social animals, but our elephants didn’t grow up in large herds, and they don’t want to be in them. Unrelated females, like our five African elephants, typically do not socialize in the wild. Our elephants have lived their entire lives in smaller herds, and they do not have the skills or desire to be in a larger herd. We know, because we have tried. We have offered them a variety of group settings, and we do not force them to share direct space with other elephants when they have shown us they don’t want that.
Unfortunately, NhRP doesn’t care about their unique circumstances and needs. We do, so we continue to fight on our elephants’ behalf. The legal arguments our attorneys plan to share on Oct. 24 will prove the District Court was right when they dismissed this case at the district level. Because the case is not about our elephants’ care, as NhRP would lead you to believe in their promotional materials, our legal position is simple.
Habeas corpus is a legal protection for humans to claim for themselves. When a human isn’t capable of asserting their own writ of habeas corpus, a court-recognized “next friend” can file a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of another human.
In the unlikely event that a court ever decided that animals could be protected from “unlawful imprisonment” by habeas corpus, a “next friend” that knows them very well would be allowed to do it for them. When this case was dismissed in El Paso County District Court, the judge reasoned that between the Zoo and NhRP, it was clear NhRP was not a “next friend” of our elephants, and if anyone had earned that right, it was Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
Another requirement of habeas corpus is that the benefitting party will ‘go free.’ Our elephants cannot ‘go free,’ because they cannot survive without human care and medical attention.
Each of these arguments separately should be enough for our elephants to remain with us, but the underlying truth is that they are not unlawfully detained, under Colorado law. Our elephants are incredible creatures, and they deserve the full protection of our federal, state and local animal welfare laws. As an Associations of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited Zoo, we provide that protection and care. When Colorado legislature recently banned elephants in traveling circuses, they expressly allowed elephants to continue to be sheltered in AZA-accredited zoos. By definition, this means our elephants are not unlawfully detained, which is the basis of NhRP’s frivolous lawsuit — and a direct disregard of the important protections our state legislators have put in place.
NhRP has attempted this same lawsuit with several other reputable zoos. NhRP lost their case in New York. They lost in California. They were dismissed in Colorado Springs and Hawaii. We hope Colorado isn’t the place that sets the slippery slope in motion of whether your beloved and well-cared-for dog or cat should have habeas corpus and would be required to ‘go free,’ at the whim of someone else’s opinion of them.
Our community has been surprised that NhRP chose to attack Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, of all places. We have consistently ranked as a top-five zoo in the nation by popular vote. We just celebrated raising $5 million for frontline conservation efforts, including over a million dollars for African elephants. Our national recognition as a leader in animal care and conservation is likely what drew their attention to us. Our latest accreditation was historic. In nearly 50 years of AZA accreditations, CMZoo was only the fourth organization to earn a ‘clean’ report, which means there wasn’t a single major or minor concern reported – including in the strenuous review of our elephant care program.
We likely will not know the Court’s decision on this case for several weeks or months, so don’t be surprised if we don’t update you for a while. In the meantime, we’re focused on animal welfare, conservation and our historic update to African Rift Valley. If you’re looking for a way to support the Zoo, support us by visiting any day of the year (we’re open year-round), or consider attending a special event, like Electric Safari, in December.
We’re grateful for our community’s unwavering support throughout the past 16 months of this, and we are hopeful that we can soon put this waste of resources to rest.
About Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Society was founded in 1926. Today, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, America’s mountain Zoo, offers comprehensive education programs, exciting conservation efforts and truly fantastic animal experiences. In 2024, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo was voted #5 Best Zoo in North America and CMZoo’s Rocky Mountain Wild was named #2 Best Zoo Exhibit in North America by USA TODAY’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. It is Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s goal to help guests fall in love with animals and nature, and take action to protect them. Since 2008, CMZoo’s Quarters for Conservation program has raised more than $5 million dedicated to frontline conservation efforts around the world. Of the 237 zoos and aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is one of just a few operating without tax support. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo depends on admissions, membership dues, special event attendance and donations for funding.