In a one-of-its-kind historic judgement, the highest court of Ecuador has decided to give legal rights to wild animals. The landmark ruling has come amidst rising cases of animal abuse across the world. By Karan Kaushik
Ecuador is the first nation to give legal rights to animals following the case of Estrellita, a woolly monkey
According to a report published in Inside Climate News, the South American country has created history by granting legal rights to animals. After the judgement by the country’s top court, wild animals in Ecuador will have legal rights to exist, develop their innate instincts, and be free from disproportionate cruelty, fear, and distress.
The court was hearing the case of the death of a woolly monkey named Estrellita. The female monkey was only a month old when a librarian Ana Beatriz Burbano Proano took her from the wild to pet her. Their strange and special human-animal relationship lasted for 18 years. In 2019, Estrellita was taken away from Proano by the authorities. This was done in order to protect the country’s constitutional law, which deems owning wild animals illegal.
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Estrellita could not bear the separation from her master and died a tragic death within a week of being taken to a zoo. Following her demise, Proano filed a habeas corpus and requested the country’s highest court to rule in favour of her pet. The librarian wanted the court to rule that the animal’s rights were violated by taking her to the zoo.
In the landmark judgement, the court has stated that Estrellita’s rights were indeed violated by the government. The court, however, added that Estrellita’s rights were also violated when Proano decided to take her away from her natural habitat and pet her.
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The court released a 57-page opinion and said that Ecuador’s rights of nature laws were also applicable to animals like Estrellita. The court also said that the government must come up with a set of new rules to protect the rights of wild animals.
According to environmental and legal experts, the verdict raises animal rights to the level of the highest law in Ecuador. “What makes this decision so important is that now the rights of nature can be used to benefit small groups or individual animals,” the report in Inside Climate News quoted Kristen Stilt, a Harvard law professor as saying.
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