Elephant rights suit

Pachyderms are people, too.

That’s the argument being made by the Nonhuman Rights Project, which filed the first-ever animal-rights lawsuit this week on behalf of three elephants in Connecticut — claiming they are legal “persons” who deserve to be in sanctuaries, not zoos.

The nonprofit believes that because the elephants — Beulah, Karen and Minnie — are autonomous beings who live “emotionally, socially and cognitively complex lives,” they have a fundamental right to be set free from the Commerford Zoo in Goshen.

“This is not an animalwelfare case,” explained attorney Steven M. Wise, president and founder of the NhRP.

“What they are doing is depriving Beulah, Karen and Minnie of their freedom, which we see as an inherently cruel violation of their most fundamental right as elephants,” he said.