The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
ELEPHANT TUSSLE
Attorneys contend animals are ‘persons’ and therefore prisoners; owners say they’re family
GOSHEN — How much weight do you give the world view of an elephant?
That is the central question in a lawsuit filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project at Superior Court in Torrington this week.
The Florida-based organization is seeking a writ of habeas corpus to free three elephants, Beulah, Karen, and Minnie — who live at the Commerford Zoo in Goshen — arguing that, considering their cognitive abilities and sense of self, the animals should be considered autonomous beings and thus legal persons who cannot be detained under the law.
Studies show that elephants are able to remember the past, live in the present, and plan for the future, NhRP President Steven Wise said.
The petition provides an overview of research into the herbivores’ world view, pointing to a series of abilities possessed by elephants, including the ability to plan, communicate, have an awareness of self and of others, solve problems, understand causation, and pass down knowledge. The group cites these as examples of the mammals’ “complex cognitive abilities sufficient for common law personhood and the common law right to bodily liberty, as a matter of common law liberty, equality, or both under Connecticut common law.”
But Tim Commerford, co-owner of the Commerford Zoo, said the suit is “preposterous” and “far-fetched.”
He said the elephants were intelligent, as all animals are in their own way, but contended the suit was intended to raise money for the organization. He said they should work toward other causes, such as the Torrington Animal Shelter, the poaching of elephants, or preservation of the species.
“This is a ploy for money, I believe, on the Nonhuman Rights part, (and for)
media attention. I believe that they’re drawing money for probably other things, because, I mean, this is crazy,” said Commerford.
Wise, however, said the Connecticut courts seemed to be an appropriate venue for this legal theory to be considered, as the state judiciary has a historic regard for protecting autonomy and the importance of habeas corpus. “a safeguard against imprisonment of those held in violation of the law,” according to Cornell University.
Given this, Wise said, the theory, while novel, does not represent a significant intellectual leap.
“We argue that, using those principles, then all they have to do is apply it to other beings who are autonomous. And the elephants are autonomous, and we carefully prove that through the experts,” said Wise. “The only strange thing is they’re not human beings. But the law, and the values, that they apply every day apply fully to the elephants.”
The Nonhuman Rights Project had been considering the status of the elephants at the Commerford Zoo for three to four years, Wise said.
“I think they’re keeping them prisoner, and if they cared about the elephants, they would stop trucking them around the Northeast and stop making them spend their lives walking around in circles with people sitting on their back,” said Wise. “The lives that Beulah and Minnie and Karen live in Goshen have nothing whatsoever to do with the natural lives of a wild elephant. They are simply prisoners there . ... None of what makes an elephant’s life worth living for is present at the Commerford Zoo.”
Commerford said the elephants have been in their care for decades. The elephants are on the road approximately 60 days each, Commerford said, and spend the rest of their time on the 40-odd acre farm in Goshen.
The family did not capture the elephants, he said — his father was intrigued by them, and a business grew up around them.
The elephants are appropriately cared for, Commerford said. Farm veterinarians look at them regularly.
“If I don’t see them on a daily basis, I’m thinking about them, because I grew up with them all my life. They’re family. The animal activists can say what they want about it, but they’re part of our family,” said Commerford. “They’re physically fit. They’re in perfect health.”
The Nonhuman Rights Project noted past complaints against the Commerford Zoo on its website, although not as the basis for the suit. Commerford said that these violations are minor and infrequent, and the zoo does not treat animals inhumanely.
If the suit were successful, Beulah, Minnie, and Karen would be brought to the Performing Animal Welfare Society Sanctuary in California, which would allow them to live a semblance of their natural lives, Wise said. The judge is required to issue the writ unless they determine that the case is wholly frivolous or the court does not have jurisdiction, Wise said.
According to the organization’s website, the sanctuary includes elephant habitats that “provide the elephants with acres of varied natural terrain to roam, lakes to bathe in, and stateof-the-art elephant barns equipped with heated stalls and... (an) indoor therapeutic pool.”
“At PAWS sanctuaries, rescued animals live in peaceful and natural habitats, free from fear, chains, and harsh confinement,” according to the organization.
“They are at complete liberty to act out natural behaviors in the comfort of their individually designed enclosures. PAWS animals are not bred, traded, sold, rented or forced to perform in any way.”
Commerford said the elephants would not know what to do in such a situation, and would not thrive — they want and are accustomed to human companionship. He said, under his family’s thinking, the elephants would be retired to the farm.
“They’re going to stay right here on the farm in Goshen, and we’re going to take care of them and provide for them like we have the last 30, 45 years, and support them,” said Commerford.
Wise has taught animalrights law at a series of universities, including Harvard and Stanford. He founded the Nonhuman Rights Project in 1996, and now works both in the United States and internationally to pursue this legal theory.
The group also is engaged in legal proceedings in New York courts in an effort to free chimpanzees.
According to its petition, Argentine courts granted a writ of habeas corpus to free a chimpanzee on two occasions.
The group also points to other examples in which non-human actors were recognized as legal persons and the evolution of past precedent regarding legal personhood, including enslaved people and the rights of Native Americans, in its petition.