The court ruled Tuesday that elephants couldn't be released because animals don't have the same rights as humans. The group that filed the suit said that the animals were experiencing stress, physical issues,

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs is home to five African elephants named Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo.

On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that elephants do not have the same rights as humans after the Nonhuman Rights Project sued the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo over the conditions of its elephants.

Five elephants at a Colorado zoo may be “majestic” but do not have the legal right to pursue their release since they aren't human.

The Colorado Supreme Court has unanimously sided with the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (CMZoo) in a lawsuit deemed “frivolous” by the zoo, which was seeking to release

DENVER — Five elephants at a Colorado zoo do not have the legal right to pursue their own freedom from a Colorado zoo, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday. The ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court follows a similar court defeat in New York in 2022 for an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo in a case brought by the same animal rights group.

The Colorado Supreme Court followed in the steps of its counterparts on Tuesday and rejected the idea that an animal rights organization could petition for the release of five captive elephants in Colorado Springs.

History will look upon this ruling as a grave injustice,” animal law professor and director of the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project Justin Marceau said.

A Colorado court rejected efforts to free five elephants using a legal process for human detainees, writing that it “boils down to whether an elephant is a person.”