An animal rights group has sued the Pittsburgh Zoo in Allegheny County Court, alleging mistreatment of five elephants and demanding they be released from captivity.
The lawsuit claims that elephants share with humans “the fundamental right to bodily liberty.” The Nonhuman Rights Project, which filed the suit Tuesday, called the suit the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.
The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit refers to itself as “the only civil rights organization in the United States dedicated solely to securing rights for nonhuman animals.”
The group was founded in 1995 and has numbered among its board members the famed late primatologist Jane Goodall. It has previously sued for the release of an elephant in the Bronx Zoo and seven chimpanzees. Both suits were unsuccessful, with judges essentially ruling on the grounds that animals don’t have the same rights as people. (The latter ruling came down just this week.)
The NhRP also plans to petition the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas to prevent the planned transfer of two of the elephants, sisters Victoria and Zuri, to a breeding center.
The Pittsburgh Zoo did not immediately return a request for comment.
In Allegheny County, NhRP is asking the Court of Common Pleas to issue “an order to show cause,” which would require the zoo, in a habeas corpus hearing, to justify keeping the elephants Angeline, Savanna, Tasha, Victoria, and Zuri.
Ultimately, the NhRP wants the courts to either order the elephants released to a sanctuary or considered as candidates for rewilding.
The group cited experts on animal behavior who argue that the captive elephant’s habits of “rocking, swaying, and head-bobbing” are signs of “chronic stress and trauma” induced by “the loneliness, boredom and frustration that characterizes zoo life.” The group supplied video footage of an elephant, which it said was among those in the Pittsburgh Zoo, gnawing on a metal chain in its cage.
“The scientific evidence submitted in support of this lawsuit makes clear that these elephants are suffering physically and psychologically because they’re deprived of their freedom,” said NhRP litigation director Elizabeth Stein in a statement. “The courts have the power and duty to remedy this.”
In press materials, the NhRP cited previous allegations of mistreatment of elephants at the Pittsburgh Zoo. They include a 2015 USDA inquiry into the use of dogs to control elephants at the zoo.
That year, the zoo gave up its accreditation by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums rather than comply with the group’s safety standards. In 2024, the zoo adopted those standards and regained its accreditation.