Rights Organization to Challenge Denial of Legal Bid for Elephants’ Freedom

Nov. 16, 2022, Fresno, CA–The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) will challenge the Fresno Superior Court’s denial yesterday of the habeas corpus petition the NhRP filed on behalf of three elephants–Amahle, Nolwazi, and Vusmusi–held in captivity in the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. The NhRP is also announcing today it will take on as a client a male elephant, Mabu, whom the zoo recently brought in to use for breeding. 

Filed in May, the NhRP’s habeas corpus petition demands recognition of Vusmusi, Amahle, and Nolwazi’s right to liberty and release to an elephant sanctuary. Superior Court Judge Arlan L. Harrell denied the NhRP’s petition on the grounds that the petition does not allege, as the Court believes it must, that the elephants are held in “state custody” (due to, for example, a prison sentence imposed by a court).

“We have several options for challenging this decision and look forward to sharing our next legal steps in the coming weeks,” said NhRP attorney Jake Davis. “We’ll also be continuing to fight for Vusmusi’s freedom and determining how best to bring on Mabu as a client.”

Judge Harrell’s decision comes days after the news that the Fresno Chaffee Zoo transferred Vusmusi to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Vusmusi was born in San Diego to an elephant who was pregnant with him when she was imported to the US in 2003 despite global public outcry. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park sent Vusmusi (whose name means “to build a family”) to Fresno in 2015 so he could be used for breeding. 

The Fresno Chaffee Zoo told the Fresno Bee on Nov. 12 that it sent Vusmusi back to San Diego upon the recommendation of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) and brought in Mabu, “who has sired many elephant calves,” to be used for breeding with Nolwazi and her daughter Amahle instead of Vusmusi. Mabu was part of a group of elephants captured from the wild in 2003 that included Vusmusi’s mother; Mabu has twice been moved back and forth between the Tucson Reid Park Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park to be used for breeding. Nolwazi and Amahle were among 17 elephants, most of them breeding-age females, who were taken from their natural habitat in eSwatini in 2016 and imported to US zoos, also despite global public outcry. 

“Forced breeding–followed by the disruptions of already severely constricted family bonds as elephants are moved from one tiny, barren zoo exhibit to another to meet zoos’ needs–are among the most morally repugnant aspects of what zoos, under the guidance of the AZA, do to elephants under the pretense that they’re helping them,” Davis said. “The truth is they’re all perpetuating a grotesque, unjust, and archaic system that isn’t saving elephants and that needs to end–in California and everywhere else.”

Additional Background:

The NhRP’s litigation to free the Fresno elephants is the first of its kind on the West Coast and has the support of world-renowned elephant experts including Dr. Joyce Poole, Dr. Keith Lindsay, and Dr. Bob Jacobs. Earlier this year, two judges on New York’s highest court issued powerful dissents in support of the right to liberty of the NhRP’s elephant client Happy who is held in captivity in the Bronx Zoo.

In August the NhRP sent a letter to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, offering to withdraw the lawsuit if the zoo agreed to release Amahle, Nolwazi, and Vusmusi to a sanctuary. The zoo declined the NhRP’s offer. 

In March, In Defense of Animals named the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, where three elephants recently died prematurely in a relatively short period of time, one of The 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants in North America. A Change.org petition calling for sanctuary for the Fresno elephants has gained over 30,000 signatures since it was started in early May. 

• Read and download the NhRP’s habeas corpus petition.
• Read and download affidavits submitted in support by Keith Lindsay; Lucy Bates and Richard W. Byrne, Bob Jacobs, Karen McComb, Cynthia Moss, and Joyce Poole. Dr. Lindsay’s affidavit describes the physical and psychological suffering of the Fresno elephants caused by their lack of freedom.
• For biographies of Nolwazi, Amahle, and Vusmusi and a detailed description of the Fresno Chaffee Zoo elephant exhibit, visit the elephants’ court case timeline.
• To download the above photo of Vusmusi for use in media coverage, click here (credit: The NhRP, December 2021).

CASE NO: 22CRWR686796

Press Contact:

Lauren Choplin
lchoplin@nonhumanrights.org

###

About the Nonhuman Rights Project

The Nonhuman Rights Project is the only civil rights organization in the United States working through litigation, legislation, and education to secure fundamental rights for nonhuman animals.