According to Animal Legal Defense Fund, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has recognized hippos as legal persons for the first time in the United States, because a Community of Hippopotamuses Living in the Magdalena River is a litigant in a lawsuit filed in Columbia and the District Court granted a
Animal personhood status
More on the Alleged Right to Liberty for Happy the Elephant
By Nancy E. Halpern, D.V.M. on
On November 19, 2020, the First Judicial Department, Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Court heard oral argument, remotely, regarding the Nonhuman Rights Project’s (the “Project”) appeal of the dismissal of their habeas corpus petition filed to establish personhood status for Happy an elephant housed at the Bronx Zoo. The purported purpose…
Another attempt to create legal standing for animals as plaintiff’s in lawsuits fails.
By Nancy E. Halpern, D.V.M. on
In Justice v. Gwendolyn Vercher, Case No. 18CV17601 (Oregon Judicial Department, Washington County Circuit Court, Twentieth Judicial District, Sept. 17, 2018) the Court dismissed a complaint filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, for Justice, the Plaintiff, a quarter horse. The Court held that an animal, including the equine Plaintiff, lacked the legal capacity to…