The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court fielded arguments Monday in a case over the rights of two Asian elephants at the Honolulu Zoo — one that seeks their release to an elephant sanctuary.
The Nonhuman Rights Project initiated the legal battle against the City and County of Honolulu on behalf of the wild-born elephants Mari and Vaigai. It petitioned for a common law writ of habeas corpus, a legal recourse normally used to ensure that people aren't improperly detained.
The high court is considering the case and heard oral arguments for both sides at Punahou School Monday morning.
“Elephant autonomy encompasses a number of very specific cognitive capacities that are established by the world's most renowned elephant scientists. Those cognitive capacities include things like self-awareness, empathy, theory of mind, true teaching, extensive long-term memory," said Jake Davis, an attorney for the NRP, during the oral arguments. "They therefore possess a quality that habeas corpus protects."
The zoo has been criticized in the past over its elephant exhibit, which spans about 1.5 acres. The facility was renovated and expanded in 2010.
William Keith Lindsay, a natural resources advisor with decades of experience in elephant conservation, estimated in a written declaration that the space actually accessible to the elephants, including a barn, totals about 1.1 acres.
"It is clear to me in my professional opinion that the facilities and their management at the Honolulu Zoo fall far short of fulfilling the physical and psychological needs of the two elephants, including the need to exercise their autonomy, in both indoor and outdoor facilities," Lindsay said in a written declaration supporting the NRP's petition.
However, the justices are worried that granting the petition might set a legal precedent that others could try to employ for other species.
"This court … has to consider what the ramifications may be if this court were to recognize and expand the writ to an animal," Justice Sabrina McKenna said. "It does create a slippery slope, so the courts could be inundated with these requests. If we were to recognize this, we would have to set some sort of reasonable parameters."
City attorneys argued in part that protections for humans shouldn't be used for an animal welfare case. They also argued that previous court decisions on the petition confirmed that Hawaiʻi's habeas corpus laws do not apply to elephants.
Honolulu Deputy Corporation Counsel Patricia Sendao noted the state's laws and the lack of historical precedence being called for in the petition.
"Their petition is untethered from any basis in our Constitution, the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes or our common law, which have enshrined certain rights to human beings and regulated animal welfare separately," Sendao said.
The petition said the elephants should be moved to an elephant sanctuary elsewhere, noting that other court decisions have already granted other animals habeas corpus relief.
The petition was previously dismissed by the First Circuit Court in 2024, and the Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed that decision in January. The ICA ruled that state habeas corpus laws should only apply to people. The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal in June.
