Fundraiser paused - court decision rendered

Save Lucy 

HELP LUCY THE ELEPHANT GET TO THE SUPREME COURT OF CANADA


Zoocheck and the Voice for Animals Society have campaigned for more than 15 years to help Lucy, the last elephant at the Edmonton Valley Zoo and the only solitary elephant in Canada. We want Lucy's case heard at the Supreme Court of Canada and we need your help to make that happen!

In previous years, we've brought forward two separate court actions to help Lucy. Neither of the cases achieved the outcome we wanted, but there have been some positive steps forward, including two strong dissenting opinions from Appeal Court judges, one of them considered by legal experts to be pivotal to helping all animals in Canada.

Our next step in this effort is to file for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. So much has happened and with the previous court decisions, we are now not only fighting for Lucy, but also for the right of Canadian citizens to ask the courts to take action to protect animals and to have our laws enforced.

Please help this critically important initiative today. This is about all animals in Canada.


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MORE BACKGROUND


Zoocheck and Voice for Animals have initiated two legal actions to help Lucy. In both cases the lower court judge refused to hear any of the substantive arguments about Lucy's suffering or how the Edmonton Valley Zoo has violated provincial zoo standards, so neither of those actions were successful. In each case, we appealed the lower court decision, so it could be heard at the Appeals Court, the next level in the court system.

However, when we appealed the first lawsuit decision, while the Appeal Court judges were split 2 to 1 in favour of the lower court decision, Chief Justice Fraser wrote a powerful 56 page dissenting opinion (one that legal scholars say is extremely important for all animals in Canada) stating that we should be allowed to proceed and that Lucy should have her day in court.

Our second, more recent, court action to help Lucy was heard by the same lower court judge and he again refused to hear the substantive arguments about Lucy that we wanted to bring forward.  He called our action an abuse of process and said Zoocheck and Voice for Animals could not have public standing to bring Lucy's plight to court despite the fact that we have spent 15 years of campaigning on her behalf.

If you don't know what standing means in legal terms, it describes the ability of someone to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support their participation in the case.

When we appealed that second lower court decision, the Appeal Court's three judges said they disagreed that it was an abuse of process and overturned that part of the lower court judge's decision. However two of the three judges agreed to uphold the decision that denied us standing to bring forward a case for Lucy.

The third judge, who didn't agree with the other two, wrote a very strong dissenting opinion saying that Zoocheck and Voice for Animals should be given public standing and that the issues around Lucy's care should be heard in the court.

The decision not to allow us standing is very dangerous for animals in Canada because it sets a precedent that could result in limiting who can ask a court to take action to protect animals and to have laws enforced. Therefore, we must ask the Supreme Court of Canada to review the decision and we believe we have a chance to make that happen.

It should be noted that dissenting opinions are not particularly common and the fact that we have two is positive.  They clearly show there is a difference of opinion in the judiciary and they lay out strong arguments as to why Lucy's case should be heard. And the fact that this has national implications that could affect all animals in Canada may be enough to convince the Supreme Court to hear it. 

So please help us by contributing to support our legal preparations which are necessary for filing for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Any amount will help us get us closer to our goal. 

This effort is still about Lucy, but it's now also about far more. It's about the ability of any person or organization to argue on behalf of animals, or even the environment, in Canada's courts. This about all animals in Canada.

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ABOUT LUCY

Lucy was purchased by the Edmonton Valley Zoo and brought to Edmonton when she was just two years old. She has been alone for the majority of her life. Lucy is now in her mid-40s, a time when most zoo elephants die. Will she die at the Valley Zoo, never experiencing space to roam, opportunities to do elephant things or being with other Asian elephants? That would be a sad, sorry end to Lucy's tragic life. Let's work together and do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen.