MEXICO-ANIMAL-ZOO-HIPPO
A male hippo calf (Hippopotamus amphibius) born on June 27 walks next to his mother Tami at the Guadalajara Zoo in Guadalajara, Mexico, on July 13, 2021. Photo by ULISES RUIZ / AFP Photo by ULISES RUIZ/AFP via Getty Images

The offspring of Pablo Escobar's "Cocaine Hippos" could now be recognized as people after a United States federal judge granted them legal rights.

Cocaine Hippos Receive Personhood Status

According to U.S. News, based on the federal court order, the hippos owned by Colombia's drug kingpin could now be called "interested persons." Federal Magistrate Judge Karen Litkovitz in Cincinnati granted the request on October 15.

The said case involved a lawsuit against the Colombian government over whether they would kill or sterilize the "cocaine hippos" whose numbers were growing at a fast pace and posed a threat to biodiversity and people nearby.

Moreover, an animal rights group considered the order as a milestone victory in the long-sought efforts to sway the U.S. justice system to grant animals personhood status.

In the suit, attorneys for the Animal Legal Defense Fund asked the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati to give the "cocaine hippos" the "interested persons" status so that the two wildlife experts in sterilization from Ohio could be deposed in the case.

The group's attorneys argued that the advocates for the hippos could bring the lawsuits to protect their interests in Colombia, targeting the hippos to be considered "interested persons" under U.S. law.

The animal rights group based close to San Francisco said that they believed that it was the first time animals have been declared legal persons in the U.S.

The group's lead attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund called it a narrow but profound ruling.

U.S. Court Order Means Nothing in Colombia, Expert Says

The group pointed to a federal statute that allows anyone who is an "interested person" in a foreign lawsuit to ask a federal court to permit them in taking the depositions in the U.S. in support of their case. However, a legal expert said that the order would not carry any weight in Colombia where the hippos live.

Camilo Burbano Cifuentes, a criminal law professor at the Universidad Externado de Colombia, shared that the ruling has no impact in Colombia because it would only have an impact within the U.S. Cifuentes emphasized that the final say on the issue would be on the Colombian government and not by the Americans.

The "cocaine hippos" were descendants of animals that Escobar illegally imported to his Colombian ranch "Hacienda Nápoles" in the 1980s when he reigned over the drug trade in Colombia.

However, after Pablo Escobar died in a 1993 shootout with authorities, the hippos were abandoned at the estate and were left to thrive with no natural predators.

Despite living in nature after being nurtured by the drug kingpin, their numbers have increased in the last eight years, which started from 35 to somewhere between 65 and 80.

Also, a group of scientists has warned that the "cocaine hippos" posed a major threat not only to the area's biodiversity but also could lead to deadly encounters with humans. The group was advocating for some of the animals to be killed, but a government agency has started sterilizing some of the hippos. The sterilization sparked debate on what were the safest methods for the "cocaine hippos."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

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