A legal battle between Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and an animal rights organization is set to go before the Colorado Supreme Court on Thursday.

The high court will hear oral arguments from the Colorado Springs-based zoo and the Nonhuman Rights Project, a nonprofit based in Coral Springs, Fla., over the treatment of five African elephants. It will be the first time the Colorado Supreme Court hears a case concerning a nonhuman animal’s right to freedom.

In June 2023, NhRP filed a writ of habeas corpus petition claiming that the elderly, female elephants — named Jambo, Missy, LouLou, Kimba and Lucky — have suffered decades of trauma and stress while living in captivity.

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Fourth Judicial District Judge Eric Bentley dismissed the petition in December, saying that the case was not entirely about the welfare of the elephants, but an attempt to establish legal “personhood” status for certain animals, making them equal to humans in the eyes of the law.

“This case does not concern just ‘five elephants,’ as the NHRP asserts,” Bentley wrote in his response to the petition.

“It concerns, as the NHRP well knows and intends, an opening of a heretofore-unopened legal door that — were it to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and be affirmed — would quite likely have the effect of upending much of our legal system, in which humans, for better or worse, exercise dominion and control over the animal world. If an elephant today, why not a dog, a pig, a cow, or a chicken tomorrow?”

In their petition, the Nonhuman Rights Project argued that the elephants are “living beings who, though not human, are like us in all the ways that matter.”

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In May, the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law filed an amicus brief in the Colorado Supreme Court on behalf of two dozen law professors, from across the U.S. and Canada, who support the Nonhuman Rights Project’s position. In a news release, the law college claimed that animal experts have observed the elephants and detected signs of psychological distress, trauma and brain damage.

On Tuesday, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo released a response that called the nonprofit’s petition “frivolous” and asserted that the elephants — which were all born in the wild between 40 and 54 years ago — have been loved and well cared for during the entirety of their time at the zoo.

“As our community already knows, at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, we take excellent care of our beloved elephants,” zoo officials said in the release.

“The NhRP’s case is not about our elephant care. Their goal is to establish a court precedent granting habeas corpus to any animal. Our elephants are just the next target on their list of failed attempts at setting this precedent.”

Sophia Doyal, a longtime Colorado Springs resident, told The Gazette on Wednesday that she finds the zoo clean and well maintained but believes the enclosures could be larger, especially for elephants.

“I want animals to be healthy wherever they are,” said Doyal, who added that she had heard about the petition against the zoo. “I feel like (the elephants’ space) could be a little bit bigger, you know, with how big elephants are.”

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Freddie Christian Reyes, who was visiting from Texas with his wife, said he would prefer to see the elephants in an environment that allows them more room to roam.

“It looks like they’re well taken care of, but it does look a little small for them,” Reyes said.

Maria Dzien, a member of the zoo for more than 7 years, was visiting from Wisconsin. She said that she loves the size and scenic location of the zoo and often takes her grandkids there when in town.

“Do any of the animals belong in the zoo? No, in reality,” Dzien said. “But it seems like the animals are well taken care of here.”

The Nonhuman Rights Project has petitioned for the elephants to be taken to a Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries-accredited sanctuary, where they would still receive human care. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has countered that transporting elderly animals to an unfamiliar environment and forcing them to adjust to a new care team could cause exactly the kind of stress the nonprofit claims to want to prevent.

In the event that the high court rules that animals fall under habeas corpus protection, a “next friend,” someone who knows the animals well, would be designated to make decisions on their behalf.

“When this case was dismissed in El Paso County District Court, the judge reasoned that between the Zoo and NhRP, it was clear NhRP was not a ‘next friend’ of our elephants, and if anyone had earned that right, it was Cheyenne Mountain Zoo,” the zoo’s release stated.

In May and June 2022, the Nonhuman Rights Project sued the Fresno Chaffee Zoo and the Bronx Zoo over the treatment of elephants kept in those zoos. The organization lost both cases.

Gazette reporter Mackenzie Bodell contributed to this story.