Animals turning into humans happens only in movies and fiction. Classic examples include bats transforming into vampires and wolves into humans.

Meanwhile, an animal rights group tried to turn elephants into legal persons.

The Nonhuman Rights Project (NRP) filed a petition for habeas corpus before the Colorado Supreme Court in the United States, seeking to compel the Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Society to transfer five elderly elephants from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to an animal sanctuary.

The court, however, ruled on 21 January that habeas corpus does not apply to animals because they are not human.

In New Zealand, lawmakers successfully transformed a non-human entity into a legal person.

Natives of the country’s North Island consider Taranaki Maunga their ancestor. On 30 January, lawmakers passed a law recognizing this.

The new law grants the snow-capped dormant volcano all the rights, responsibilities, powers, duties and liabilities of a person, The Independent reports.

“The legal recognition acknowledges the mountain’s theft from the Māori of the Taranaki region after New Zealand was colonized and fulfills an agreement of redress from the country’s government to the indigenous people for harms perpetrated against the land since,” according to The Independent.

The mountain’s legal rights will be cited to prevent its sale, restore its traditional uses, and allow conservation efforts to protect native wildlife, the report adds. WJG @tribunephl_wjg