Freeing Zoo Elephants (EMS and ALRA)

Cullinan & Associates is acting for Animal Law Reform South Africa, the EMS Foundation and Chief Stephen Fritz of the South Peninsula Khoi Council in their bid to have the three elephants in the Johannesburg Zoo released for rehabilitation into a wild setting. This groundbreaking case asks the Court to recognise that elephants are highly intelligent, socially complex and sentient animals whose confinement in the zoo is deeply adverse to their wellbeing as well as being in contravention of the environmental right in the Constitution and applicable animal protection, welfare and environmental laws. The applicants have brought the case in their interests, in the public interest, and in the interests of the Elephants as sentient beings who are unable to institute legal proceedings themselves.