In a unanimous judgment, the Colorado Supreme Court conceded that the animals are “majestic” but said they are not entitled to the same legal protections as humans.

The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) had sought to persuade the court that five elephants kept at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs were wrongly imprisoned.

The campaign group wants Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou and Jambo to be relocated to an elephant sanctuary – which judges suggested amounted to swapping “one form of confinement to another”.

Handing down judgment on behalf of the court, Justice Maria E. Berkenkotter said Colorado’s habeas corpus law “only applies to persons, and not to non-human animals, no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be”.

In a statement, the NRP said the ruling “perpetuates a clear injustice, stating that unless an individual is human they have no right to liberty”.

“Future courts will reject this notion, as judges in the United States and around the world have already begun to do,” the group added.