Happy the Elephant's legal journey to have the rights of human beings began in 1977. Essentially, those fighting for her such as lawyer Steven Wise of the Nonhuman Rights Project want this outcome: She be "liberated" from being held at the Bronx Zoo and transferred to an animal sanctuary. Here are more details from The Wall Street Journal.
On November 18th the case will be back in court. This time at the New York Court of Appeals. That's the place for lawyers to be with unsettled questions of law.
This issue has major implications - especially monetary ones.
As pet parents well know, as long as their dogs, cats, and more lack the rights of humans litigation usually doesn't compensate for emotional distress. For example, the pet food manufacturer has been ruled negligent in processing. Thousands of dogs and cats died. In most jurisdictions pet parents who sued would only receive the amount for the loss of "property." That's the typical legal classification of pets: property. No notice would be taken of the emotional suffering of the pet parents for loss of that family member.
According to Statista, in the US, 69 million households have a dog as a family member and 45.3 million have a cat.
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