The pandemic is an opportunity for humans to relate to the pain suffered by other living beings in captivity, denied the conditions and habitats created for their survival by the Creator.
LAUREN CHOPLIN: The Islamabad High Court in Pakistan issued a decision that “without any hesitation” affirms the rights of nonhuman animals and specifically orders the release to sanctuary of an Asian elephant named Kaavan held in solitary confinement at the Marghazar Zoo… The NhRP (Non-human Right Project) sees this decision, which favorably references the NhRP’s litigation, as a tremendous sign of progress in the global fight for nonhuman animal rights, which the NhRP initiated in the US in 2013…
Chief Justice Athar Minallah’s decision, which came about as a result of three petitions filed on behalf of diverse species, begins with a reflection on how the COVID-19 crisis has presented “an opportunity for humans to introspect and relate to the pain and distress suffered by other living beings” caused by “the arrogance” of humans… In the decision, Judge Minallah refers to the NhRP’s client Happy as an “inmate” at the Bronx Zoo and writes that “zoos do not serve any purpose except to display their living inmates as exhibits to visitors.”
He also cites to Justice Alison Y. Tuitt’s February 2020 decision in Happy’s case in which she found that Happy “is more than just a legal thing, or property. She is an intelligent, autonomous being who should be treated with respect and dignity, and who may be entitled to liberty.” The Islamabad High Court is the second court outside the US to have cited to Tuitt’s decision in the four months since it was issued and the latest to cite to New York Court of Appeals Judge Eugene Fahey’s rejection of chimpanzees’ legal “thinghood” in the NhRP’s chimpanzee rights cases. SOURCE…
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