Efforts to release five elephants from a Colorado zoo were denied by court ruling that elephants do not possess the legal status of "persons". An animal rights group argued that Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo were effectively confined and sought to relocate them to an elephant sanctuary. The group sought a habeas corpus claim on their behalf, a legal avenue permitting challenges to detention. The Colorado Supreme Court deliberated on whether elephants hold the same rights as humans and concluded they do not, upholding a previous decision restricting habeas corpus to humans. The court acknowledged the elephants as "majestic" but affirmed that the claim was invalid because "an elephant is not a person".
The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) advocated for the relocation of the five elderly African elephants from Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to an appropriate sanctuary in 2023, emphasizing their emotional complexity and intelligence. They cited signs of distress in the elephants, arguing they were essentially imprisoned at the zoo. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo rebuffed the claim, asserting the elephants received exceptional care, backed by a lower court.
Following the Supreme Court verdict, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo criticized NRP's legal action as "frivolous", denouncing it as a wasteful attempt that exploited courts for fundraising. NRP was accused of using sensational court cases to solicit donations. NRP decried the ruling as perpetuating an injustice, contending that non-humans were denied liberty rights. A previous bid by NRP to free Happy, an elephant from Bronx Zoo, was similarly dismissed on the grounds that she lacked legal personhood.