The drug trafficker Pablo Escobar imported four hippos in 1981 to form part of the exotic animal collection at his Hacienda Napoles.
The hippos descendants of some who belonged to the late Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar were declared “legal persons” by an Ohio court, in a ruling that makes US history by considering an animal as such for the first time. With this decision, it is sought to protect these African megaherbivores from castration in Colombia.
The order “sets an important precedent that animals can exercise their legal rights,” Christopher Berry, director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, told EFE on Monday.
This animal protection organization put the case before an Ohio court to support a lawsuit in Colombia against the immunocastration project to stop the growth of this hippo population in that Andean country.
“This precedent supports the arguments that are being made right now in other cases in the United States that animals have the capacity to enforce legal rights, such as the right not to be cruelly neglected,” Berry said.
The lawyer, however, explained that the US judge’s ruling, in mid-October, “It is limited to authorizing the hippos (in this case their defenders) to obtain evidence in support of their claim in Colombia”.
In the case of Latin America, Berry explained that Argentina and Colombia “are part of a growing trend of jurisdictions around the world that recognize that animals are legal entities with the ability to enforce certain legal rights in court.”
The Animal Legal Defense Fund presented to the Ohio court the request that the considerations of two experts from that state in non-surgical sterilization, Elizabeth Berkeley and Richard Berlinski, be taken into account as evidence in the lawsuit against the Government of Colombia against the plan. “to kill about 100 hippos.”
Escobar, the powerful head of the Medellín cartel, imported four hippos, three females and one male, from a zoo in the United States in 1981 to form part of the collection of exotic animals at his Hacienda Napoles, and which have now been reproduced without control.
The plaintiffs in Colombia are the “community of hippos that live in the Magdalena River” in central Colombia, a country where the animals have standing to file lawsuits to protect their interests.
The voice of the hippos
US law allows any “interested person” in foreign litigation to apply to a federal court for permission to take depositions in the United States.
According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, since hippos are plaintiffs in the Colombian litigation, they qualify as “interested persons” in the United States.
Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, said the court order represents “a critical milestone in the broader fight for animal status to recognize that animals have enforceable rights.”
“Animals have the right to be free from cruelty and exploitation,” he added.
The lawsuit in Colombia was filed in 2020 on behalf of the hippos by lawyer Luis Domingo Gómez Maldonado “to prevent the animals from being killed,” the fund recalled.
Start of the hippo sterilization plan in Colombia
While the lawsuit is ongoing, the regional environmental agency involved in addressing the hippo population announced that it had begun this month providing a fraction of the animals with the contraceptive drug GonaCon.
According to the fund, it is unknown whether the use of the drug by the Colombian government is safe and effective, and how many hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) they will kill.
They sterilize hippos descendants of those carried by Pablo Escobar in the 80s
The lawsuit seeks an order to provide a contraceptive called PZP (porcine zona pellucida), “given its historic success in hippos kept in zoos.”
The testimony of Berkeley and Berlinski will be used “to strengthen support for the contraceptive PZP to prevent the hippos that live in the Magdalena River from continuing to increase the population without sacrificing them,” the fund said.
Currently, according to the Colombian authorities, there are 80 hippos identified that are divided into three population groups located in the Magdalena Medio Region.
By 2050 there could be between 400 and 800 hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) in Colombia if no action is taken, according to a study this year from Florida International University (FIU).
That takes into account an annual growth rate of its population of 7%, but if you consider an 11% increase, something that is not unrealistic according to the university, could reach 5,000. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
