Ojai Becomes First US City to Recognize Bodily Rights of an Animal—Elephants

Two-day-old male baby elephant Umesh walks between its thirty-four-year-old mother Indi and sister Omysha in the Kaeng Krachan Elephant Park at the zoo in Zurich, Switzerland, on Feb. 6, 2020. Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

With a “groundbreaking” ordinance, the Ojai City Council—in a 4–1 vote—recognized the legal rights of elephants within the city during a council meeting on Sept. 26. The California city is the first in the U.S. to grant defined and enforceable rights to an animal, according to officials.

The ordinance grants elephants in the city freedom from forced confinement and other outside control or restraint.