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Why are animals gaining new legal rights?

Lawyers are suing on behalf of animals, governments are granting legal rights to animals to prevent them from being held in activity.
Posted at 5:33 PM, May 27, 2022
and last updated 2023-02-07 05:53:21-05

In Colombia, lawyers are representing hippos to sue the government over threats to their environment. India granted dolphins legal rights to protect them from being held in captivity. And the New York Court of Appeals is looking at a case about whether an elephant named Happy is being imprisoned against her will at the Bronx Zoo.

So why are animals gaining new legal rights? Should they keep them? And if animals have new rights, what does it change about our relationship with them in the future?