A US court recognizes Pablo Escobar's hippos as legal persons

• Colombia Pablo Escobar is still alive, 25 years after his death

For the first time, a United States court has

, specifically, the descendants of

hippos

that have proliferated in

since the renowned drug trafficker was shot to death almost 30 years ago.

The ruling came after the nonprofit

submitted a request to allow two experts in non-surgical wildlife sterilization to provide testimony in support of a Colombian lawsuit to stop a cull.

In federal court in Ohio, Magistrate Judge

last week granted the plaintiffs' request, in this case the "hippo community living on the Magdalena River."

The ruling was based on a US law that allows a "person concerned" in foreign litigation to request US depositions to help their case.

"By granting the request ... the court recognized the hippos as legal persons with respect to that statute," ALDF explained in a statement.

Christopher Berry

, managing attorney for ALDF, told AFP on Thursday that the district court order "will help the hippos in their lawsuit not to die, that is the immediate impact of it."

"More generally, it is the first concrete example of a US court authorizing animals to exercise a legal right on behalf of the animal itself," he added.

The lawsuit was filed last July on behalf of the hippos by lawyer

in Colombia, a country that already recognizes the legal personality of animals.

His goal is to prevent the government from euthanizing the animals, which now

, significantly more than the male and three females that Escobar initially acquired.

Exotic collection

Before the police shot him dead in 1993, the cocaine mogul bought exotic animals to live on his ranch, including flamingos, giraffes, zebras and kangaroos.

After his death, all the animals except the hippos

.

The semi-aquatic ungulates were allowed to roam Escobar's huge Hacienda Napoles property and continued to breed.

It is now estimated to be

.

The presence of the species has had detrimental consequences for the local ecology, as well as reported attacks on local fishermen.

While the litigation is ongoing, authorities announced on October 15 that they had begun sterilizing the herd with the

administered with dart guns, and through surgical sterilization.

The lawsuit maintains that it is unknown whether the Colombian government will use the drug safely and whether it still intends to kill some of the animals.

It seeks to provide hippos with another contraceptive, called

, which has been used successfully in zoos and is recommended by

, an international organization that focuses on the sterilization of animals.

Thanks to the US court order, the testimony of Animal Balance wildlife experts

can be used to bolster Maldonado's case.

A horse and an elephant await sentencing

Berry said that this recent legal decision joins other cases seeking the legal status of animals in the courts of the United States.

A horse named

is being represented by the ALDF in a cruelty and negligence case, while the elephant

who resides at the

, is being represented by The Nonhuman Rights Project in a habeas corpus case for illegal detention.

It remains to be seen how other courts will consider the hippo decision, "but it is certainly relevant and important to the broader discussion of personality and animal rights," Berry said.

The movement to grant animals legal status has also been gaining momentum globally.

In 2014, an Argentine court ruled that

, had been subjected to unfair confinement at the

.

Now she's settled in an ape sanctuary in Florida.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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