Escobar’s Hippos Test Limits of When Animals Are Legally People

摘要

When Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993, he left officials with a unique problem that grows to nearly 4,000 pounds, claims hundreds of lives annually in its naturalhabitat, and has grabbed international attention after an Ohio federal court issued a ruling that animal activists still celebrate.Escobar’s four hippopotamuses multiplied at his unattended estate, Hacienda Nápoles, located about 60 miles east of Medellín, Colombia. The hippos spread out and found a home in thenearby Magdalena River, and they now number nearly 100 with no clear obstacles in their path.Colombian officials are trying to figure out what to do with the animals. The government floated the idea of killing them and it’s now testing a form of birth control, but death is still on thetable.