The offspring of ‘cocaine hippos’ once owned by Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar can be recognised as people or “interested persons” with legal rights in the US, a federal court order mentioned. The case involved a lawsuit against the Colombian government that wanted to sterilize the hippos who were growing at a fast pace.

The hippos were illegally imported by Escobar to his Colombian ranch in the 1980s when he reigned over the country’s drug trade.

An animal rights group welcomed the order as it had been a tall climb in swaying the US justice system to grant animals personhood status. As per a legal expert, quoted by Associated Press, the order will not carry any weight in Colombia where the hippos live.

Also Read | Colombian government starts sterilising ‘Cocaine Hippos’ from Pablo Escobar’s private zoo

“The ruling has no impact in Colombia because they only have an impact within their own territories. It will be the Colombian authorities who decide what to do with the hippos and not the American ones,” said Camilo Burbano Cifuentes, a criminal law professor at the Universidad Externado de Colombia.

After Escobar’s death in 1993, the hippos were abandoned at the estate and left to thrive with no natural predators. In the last 8 years, their numbers grew from 35 to somewhere between 65 and 80.

A group of scientists sounded an alert saying that the hippos pose a major threat to the area’s biodiversity. The increasing population may also lead to some deadly encounters.

While a government agency has started neutralising some of the hippos, debate rage on what is the safest method.

In the suit, attorneys for the Animal Legal Defense Fund asked the US District Court in Cincinnati to give “interested persons” status to the hippos so that two wildlife experts in sterilization from Ohio could be deposed in the case.

Federal magistrate Judge Karen Litkovitz in Cincinnati granted the request on October 15. The animal rights group said it believes it’s the first time animals have been declared legal persons in the US

Since the advocates for the hippos can bring lawsuits to protect their interest in Colombia, their attorneys argued that hippos should be considered “interested persons” under US law.

(with inputs from Associated Press)