World's First, Thanks To Wool Monkey Named Estrellita, Wild Animals In Ecuador Now Have Legal Rights

Monyet berbulu wol. (Wikimedia Commons / Hans Hillewaert)

JAKARTA - Ecuador made history, when a local court made a landmark decision, making the country the first to grant legal rights to wild animals.

The decision was taken after a woolly monkey was moved from his home to the zoo and died a week later. The monkey, named Estrellita, was taken from the wild at the age of one month, and kept as a pet for 18 years by librarian Ana Beatriz Burbano Proaño.

Owning a wild animal is illegal in Ecuador, so the pet was confiscated by authorities in 2019 and after being taken to the zoo he died.

Before learning that she had died, her owner petitioned habeas corpus, a legal mechanism to determine if the animal's detention was legal. He requested that Estrellita be returned to him and the court ruled that the monkey's rights had been violated.

Last December, the court ruled in favor of Ana Beatriz Burbano Proaño, but also added that the rights of the animals had been violated when they were removed from their natural habitat.

"The ruling elevates animal rights to the level of the constitution, Ecuador's highest law," Ecuador's environmental lawyer Hugo Echeverría said, citing Euronews April 6.

Woolly monkey. (Wikimedia Commons/Hans Hillewaert)

In 2008 Ecuador became the first country in the world to recognize nature as a legal entity, enshrining the right of its people to live in a healthy environment in its constitution.

Echeverría added that while nature rights are already part of the constitution, it is not clear whether individual wild animals can benefit from them.

"The court has declared animals a subject of rights, protected by nature's rights."

It is thought that this is the first time the law on natural rights has been applied in court.

In the case, the court also noted "wild species and their individuals have the right not to be hunted, captured, captured, collected, extracted, stored, retained, traded, traded or exchanged."

He added that these rights stem from the value of animals themselves, not their value to humans, making it clear that animals have the power to enforce these rights in court.

It also includes a call to Ecuador's Ministry of the Environment for more rules and procedures to ensure that the constitutional rights of wild animals are respected.

It is known, Colombia, New Zealand, Panama, Chile and Mexico have also provided natural law protection, either through their constitutions or court systems.