A judge in the United States has recognised hippos as persons, while the unborn currently have no such legal right.
A group of hippos once belonging to Pablo Escobar, the infamous Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist, have been recognised as juridic persons by the U.S. federal judiciary.
The population of 120 hippos on the Magdalena River has caused serious problems to the local ecosystem, as well as having attacked people, resulting in calls for a cull.
But the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) has successfully intervened by filing an application to allow experts to testify on behalf of the hippos and forward non-lethal solutions to the hippo problem.
“Animals have the right to be free from cruelty and exploitation, and the failure of U.S. courts to recognize their rights impedes the ability to enforce existing legislative protections”, an ALDF statement said.
By granting the request, federal Judge Karen Litkovitz, recognising the “community of hippopotamuses living in the Magdalena River”, has acknowledged the hippos as juridic persons – a legal status currently denied to the unborn.
Ever since the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court, which essentially legalised abortion in the United States, federal courts have continued to deny legal personhood to unborn babies.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “It is absurd that animals have more rights in some cases than unborn babies.
“While animals should, of course, have rights that protect them from cruelty and exploitation, it should be obvious that those same protections ought to be extended, at the very least, to the unborn.
“But even bills seeking to protect babies “born alive” after abortion attempts have struggled to gain legal status in the West – including the U.S. Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which recently failed to pass in the U.S. Senate.
“Many abortion survivors, lacking legal protection, have simply been left to die – yet hippos have now been granted a status that may guarantee their right to life.”
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