A pro-life group is speaking out against a recent U.S. federal court ruling, acknowledging a group of hippopotamuses as “interested persons” that now have legal rights.
Last month, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio recognized the animals as legal persons, the first ruling of its kind in the U.S.
The case involving the hippos that were once owned by Colombian drug smuggler Pablo Escobar, began when an animal rights group filed a lawsuit against the Colombian government. The Animal Legal Defense Fund announced the country’s government planned to kill nearly 100 hippos due to the potential dangers they pose when interacting with humans.
“This really is part of a bigger movement of advocating that animals’ interest be represented in court,” said Christopher Berry with the legal defense group. “We’re not asking to make up a new law. We’re just asking that animals have the ability to enforce the rights that have already been given to them.”
But the pro-life advocacy organization, Live Action, has pointed out that unborn babies “still have no rights” and “lag far behind these animals in terms of rights recognized by the federal judiciary.”
“Sadly, preborn humans are not granted the same legal status as Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos in U.S. federal court,” Live Action said on its website.” The U.S. has among of the most extreme pro-abortion legal regimes in the world. It is only one of seven countries, along with North Korea and China, to allow elective abortion past 20 weeks’ gestation.”
The hippos’ lawsuit is seeking an order to administer a contraceptive in an effort to help control the population versus killing the animal.
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