Ecuador becomes world’s first country to give legal rights to wild animals

Ecuador, a South American Country, became the first country in the world to give legal rights to wild animals. The highest court in the country has ruled in favour of the case that focused on a woolly monkey named “Estrellita” who was taken from her home to a zoo, where she passed just a week later.

The ruling comes soon after the Ecuador recently also became the first country in the world to recognise nature as a legal entity. The apex court of Ecuador has stated that wild animals have the right “not to be hunted, fished, captured, collected, extracted, kept, retained, trafficked, marketed or exchanged” and the right to the “free development of their animal behaviour, which includes the guarantee of not being domesticated and not forced to assimilate human characteristics or appearances.” It is worth noting that owning wild animals in Ecuador is illegal.