US Court recognises cocaine hippos as legal persons for first time.
More than 80 hippos previously owned by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar have a unique distinction in U.S. law: They are the first non-human creatures to be legally considered people.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio recognised the late Escobar’s infamous “Cocaine Hippos” as legal persons for the first time in the United States.
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The ruling on Oct. 15 came on the same day the Animal Legal Defense Fund (“ADLF”) filed an application on behalf of the hippo plaintiffs in Colombia intended to stop that country’s government from killing the animals. The ALDF announced the decision in a news release Wednesday.
The hippos are descendants of four illegally imported by Escobar. They were set free after his death in 1993. In the years that followed, the hippos escaped the property, relocated to the Magdalena River, and reproduced at a rate that some ecologists consider to be unsustainable. They have increased their numbers to more than 80, and they are reportedly wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem. However, some scientists have argued they may actually be “restoring ecological functions” lost for thousands of years due to “human-driven extinctions.”
In July, Colombian attorney Luis Domingo Gómez Maldonado filed a lawsuit on behalf of the animals to save them from being killed, saying that sterilisation was a better option. Although Colombia law gives non-human creatures legal standing to bring lawsuits to protect their interests, that country’s legal system can’t compel someone in the U.S. to produce documents supporting their case.
However, a U.S. law allows interested persons in Colombia to go to a U.S. federal court to seek the ability to obtain documents and testimony, so the ALDF applied for the hippos’ rights to compel two Ohio wildlife experts who study nonsurgical sterilisation to provide testimony on behalf of the plaintiffs.
By granting the application, the District Court recognised animals as legal persons for the first time in U.S. history.
Christopher Berry, the attorney overseeing the U.S. case who also serves as managing director at the Animal Legal Defense Fund said: -
“It’s obvious that animals actually do have legal rights, for example, the right not to be cruelly abused or killed ... but a legal right is only as valuable as one’s right to enforce that legal right…The legal system doesn’t ... have precedent for animals’ interests directly appearing in court. There’s no precedent for animals having a legal standing to enforce their own rights.”
Wednesday’s ruling will allow ADLF to collect more testimony from experts on the most effective and safest form of sterilisation for the hippopotamuses. The ALDF is also continuing to monitor the situation to ensure none of the hippos is killed.
ALDF Executive Director Stephen Wells said in the release Wednesday that: -
“…animals have the right to be free from cruelty and exploitation, and the failure of U.S. courts to recognise their rights impedes the ability to enforce existing legislative protections.”
He called the court order “a critical milestone in the broader animal status fight to recognise that animals have enforceable rights.”
Courtesy of Kat Mak
