Introduction

The Nonhuman Rights Project exists to make history by transforming the legal status of nonhuman animals to secure their fundamental rights. The need for this change couldn’t be greater—animals are routinely exploited, unable to receive adequate protection under the law because they’re rightless. This harms not only animals but the justice system’s high callings of equality, fairness, and liberty. 

The NhRP is answering these callings in bold and unique ways developed to create long-term legal and societal change. With your support, we made history again in 2024 as we continue to push for a system that works for animals and for justice. 

In the courtroom, we took the issue of elephants’ right to liberty to Colorado’s highest court, which marked the first time any state high court in the Western US had considered whether an animal is entitled to a legal right. Meanwhile, our cases to secure the right to liberty of elephants in Hawaii and chimpanzees in Michigan advanced to the appellate level. Now judges in those states must also address, for the first time, the same basic questions of civil liberty.

We also continued our advocacy to free Happy from the Bronx Zoo by bringing to light the zoo’s lack of transparency surrounding her disappearance from public view over the summer and widespread concerns about her physical and emotional well-being.

Happy’s story continues to highlight the problem of animal rightlessness and the injustice of denying elephants the right to liberty. 

We also expanded our legal work beyond habeas corpus and the right to liberty, taking up the question raised in a New York court case of whether a companion animal who was killed can be considered a member of the family for the purpose of recovering emotional distress damages. Cases like this underscore that the barriers animals face due to being treated as “things” cut deeply and systemically across our legal system. 

I want to thank our supporters for carrying the torch with us. Having been an animal protection attorney for 15 years, I joined the NhRP as Executive Director in 2024 because my previous career in animal advocacy demonstrated to me that animals need legal rights. But history doesn’t make itself—we make it one year at a time. Thank you to our entire movement of supporters for making history with us. 

Christopher Berry
Executive Director, the NhRP