Conn. Court Considers Whether Elephants Deserve Human Rights

In Connecticut, an appeals court will hear arguments on Monday in a case about the rights of elephants.

A nonprofit called the Nonhuman Rights Project has said that three elephants at the Commerford Petting Zoo are being held in deplorable conditions. The group wants to free the elephants and is taking an unorthodox approach. It's trying to get the court to recognize the animals' "personhood," a status that would entitle them to the same legal protections as human beings.

We speak about elephants, their intelligence, and how we treat them in captivity.

Caitrin Keiper, senior editor at journal The New Atlantis, where she wrote "Do Elephants Have Souls?"