Drug lord Pablo Escobar’s lawyered-up hippos recognised as people by US court
- The ruling provides a boost to a lawsuit seeking to stop the Colombian government from culling the animals
- The hippos have thrived since Escobar’s death and now number around 100, posing threats to local ecology and fishermen
In a first, a US court has recognised animals as legal persons – specifically, the descendants of Pablo Escobar’s hippopotamuses who have thrived in Colombia since the notorious drug lord was killed almost 30 years ago.
The ruling came after the non-profit Animal Legal Defence Fund (ALDF) filed an application seeking to allow two experts in non-surgical sterilisation of wildlife to provide testimony supporting a Colombian lawsuit to stop a cull.
At a federal court in Ohio, magistrate Judge Karen Litkovitz last week granted the request of the plaintiffs, the “Community of Hippopotamuses Living in the Magdalena River”.
The ruling was based on a US law that allows an “interested person” in foreign litigation to request US depositions to help their case.
“In granting the application … the court recognised the hippos as legal persons with respect to that statute,” ALDF said in a statement.