Lammie the elephant is over 40 years old and has spent his entire life in the zoo. (Photo: Johannesburg Zoo / Facebook).
The Pretoria High Court will this week hear an application for the release of three elephants held in the Johannesburg zoo.
The case lasts from Tuesday to Thursday. The application to relocate the elephants in a protection facility was already brought in 2022. It is argued that the detention of these three elephants in the zoo is unconstitutional and that they are currently being held in an environment that does not meet their basic needs.
Cullinan & Associates represents the three applicants, Animal Law Reform South Africa, the EMS Foundation and Steven Fritz, chief of the Khoi. The Johannesburg Parks Agency, the Johannesburg Metro, the Gauteng MEC for Economic and Rural Development, Agriculture and the Environment, and the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment are the respondents.
Lammie was born in the zoo, while Mopane and Ramadiba were found as young elephants in the wild. They were first used in the elephant safari industry and then bought by the zoo in 2019.
“South African legislation makes it clear that the well-being of elephants must be taken into account when decisions are made to keep them in captivity,” says Sarah Kvalsvig, specialist attorney at Cullinan & Associates.
“Courts in other countries have recognized that elephants have the right to live freely and express their natural behavior in the ecosystems they are part of. Our clients and their experts believe that the physical and psychological needs of these three highly intelligent and extremely social elephants cannot be met in the Johannesburg Zoo.”
Kvalsvig believes the case raises new constitutional questions regarding environmental rights such as those that apply to the well-being of elephants in captivity. “The application examines the respondents’ obligations to respect, protect and promote environmental rights by ensuring the proper welfare of elephants.”
Lesai Seema, director at Cullinan & Associates, said elephants are conscious, socially complex creatures whose well-being is inseparable from the ecological systems of which they form a part. “Our legislative framework requires a form of decision-making that is rational, evidence-based and responsive to the welfare implications of captivity, regarding where the state chooses to keep such animals.”
Two legal experts associated with Harvard University in America were added to the High Court application at the end of last year to relocate Lammie, Mopane and Ramadiba due to their age.