ARGENTINE COURT RULES THAT COUGAR HAS RIGHTS. In 2019, police officers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, confiscated a six month old cougar named Lola...ARGENTINE COURT RULES THAT COUGAR HAS RIGHTS. In 2019, police officers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, confiscated a six month old cougar named Lola Limon, found tied up in front of a house. The public prosecutor requested that the “sentient being” be declared “a subject of rights” and that the cougar “be granted her complete freedom, free of any measure or legal restriction, with definitive legal custody granted” to Buenos Aires’ Interactive Ecopark. Lola Limon, now three years old, is in “sufficient physical condition to undergo the first step of treatment,” including a chance to be returned to her natural environment from which she was illegally taken.

The court has recently ruled that the cougar was a subject of rights, and referenced other caselaw, as well as the 1977 Universal Declaration of Animal Rights (UN, UNESCO), which states that “All animals are born with an equal claim on life and the same rights to existence” and the stipulation that all animals are entitled to the right to respect, attention, care, and protection from humankind.

We hope that this ruling sets a precedent for similar court cases and legislation in other countries. Show more