Animal rights non-profit Nonhuman Rights Project brought both cases on the elephants’ behalf under a legal doctrine known as habeas corpus, saying the animals should live in sanctuaries.

It also noted the Nonhuman Rights Project’s concession during oral argument that it was seeking only different confinement, not complete freedom, for the elephants was another reason to treat them and humans differently.

‘An elephant is not a person’

In a statement, the Nonhuman Rights Project said the decision “perpetuates a clear injustice” that consigns the five elephants to “a lifetime of mental and physical suffering”. It has not determined its next legal steps.

She said counting those animals as persons would be a “monumental change” that one would expect legislators to make explicit if they really meant it.