The U.S. District Court just recognized it
More than 100 hippos living along the Magdalena River in Colombia are legal persons
This is the first time a U.S. court has recognized an animal as a legal person
This month, for the first time, a U.S. court recognized animals as legal persons. The lawsuit takes place in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Here, the Animal Rights Group Animal Law Defense Fund (ALDF) filed an application asking two Ohio non-surgical sterilization specialists, Elizabeth Berkeley and Dr. Richard Bolinsky, to testify.
The experts will speak on behalf of the plaintiff, who has been identified as a "hippopotamus community living on the Magdalena River in Colombia". In response to this foreign lawsuit, the U.S. District Court granted the application pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782 and recognized Hippo as a legal person of the Act during the proceedings.
Under the act, the United States allows any "interested party" in a foreign lawsuit to collect evidence in the United States and apply to federal court to safeguard its legitimate interests. Since Colombia recognizes hippos as legitimate parties to the case, more than 100 hippos living along the Magdalena River in Colombia are collective "stakeholders" under this statute.
Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Law Defense Fund, said in a statement: "Animals have a right to be free from abuse and exploitation, and the failure of U.S. courts to recognize their rights hampers the ability to enforce existing legislation to protect animals." This time, the local court in the United States authorized hippos to exercise orders to obtain legal rights, which is an important milestone in the struggle for animal status to recognize the animal's enforceable rights. ”
As plaintiffs, the hippos once belonged to Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. He purchased four hippos from the zoo in the 1980s. After Escobar's death in 1993, the Colombian government left these hippos on his soil on the grounds that it would not be possible to transfer them to a suitable environment. Since then, these hippos have fled the land and settled along the Magdalena River. Some ecologists say their rate of reproduction cannot be sustained there.
In July 2020, lawyer Luis Domingo filed a lawsuit in Colombia to avoid the government slaughtering more than 100 hippos along the Magdalena River that these lives. On October 15, 2021, local environmental agencies began giving hippos contraceptives, and their safety and efficacy are unclear, nor how many more hippos the government intends to kill. Instead, the lawsuit ordered the provision of the hippopotamus with a contraceptive drug specifically targeting hippos, PZP, a contraceptive safety drug recommended by Animal Balance, an international organization focused on animal sterilization.
Now that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has approved the application, the testimony of Animal Balance's wildlife experts Berkeley and Dr. Bolinsky will be used to support the use of the hippo contraceptive drug PZP, rather than having the Colombian government slaughter the hippos.
In many countries, legal personality is not limited to persons. The United States is only just beginning to receive the same legal recognition, and in addition to the United States, other countries also recognize animals as having legal personality.
In India, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana granted animal legal or entity status in 2019, conferring "the corresponding rights, duties and responsibilities of living persons" to animals in Haryana. In 2018, Rajiv Sharma, a judge at Uttarakhand High Court, presided over a similar ruling, explaining that his decision was based on differences between people and things who have been granted legal personality in the past.
In his ruling, Judge Sharma said: "Corporations, Hindu deities, bibles, rivers have been declared legal entities, and therefore, in order to protect and promote the greater welfare of animals, including birds and aquatic animals, animals need to be granted legal entity/legal entity status."
"Animals should be healthy,
Live a comfortable and safe life,
Be able to express your nature freely,
There should be no pain, fear and sadness.
They have a right to justice.
Animals cannot be treated as commodities or property. ”
- Rajiv Sharma, Judge of the High Court of Akand, India