To start a new week, we looked at a couple of the more unusual decisions arrived at by courts in different parts of the world.

Firstly over in the ‘Land of the Free’ it seems that an animal rights group who brought a law suit on behalf of 5 elephants have been accused of abusing the court systems.

Using the legal process of habeas corpus, a legal manoeuvre which requires a court to examine the legality of a detention, the group charged the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, with the unlawful detention of 5 elephants, who it was claimed were showing signs of brain damage.

They had hoped to show that in the minds of the elephants, the zoo was essentially a prison for creatures that in the wild were known to roam for miles every day, and that therefore they should be moved to an elephant sanctuary.

In their defence, the zoo claimed that moving the elephants and potentially placing them with new animals would be cruel at their age, and could possibly cause unnecessary stress, and that as these particular elephants, were not used to being in larger herds, and so wouldn’t have the necessary skills, or desire to join one.

The court concluded that as an elephant is not a person, they had no legal standing to bring such a claim.

The zoo went one step further by alleging that the group’s real motive was to manipulate people into donating to their cause by incessantly publicising sensational court cases with relentless calls for supporters to donate.

Meanwhile over in New Zealand, a mountain has just been recognised as a person after being granted all the rights and responsibilities of a human, by the government.

The new law offers extra protection for Mount Taranaki – now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Maori name – and means it has all the rights, powers, duties and responsibilities of a person.

The mountain’s legal personality also has a name, ‘Te Kahui Tupua’, which the law views as “a living and indivisible whole”.

It includes Taranaki and its surrounding peaks and land, “incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements”.

In spite of it’s new status, the mountain, which has become a popular spot for tourism, hiking and snow sports, will remain publicly accessible.

Later in today’s show we examined the story involving a crashed vehicle in Swindon.

The fact that it careered off the road might have had something to do with the fact, that following the crash the driver’s seat was found to be occupied by a blow-up sex doll!

If the doll had indeed been behind the wheel at the time the vehicle careered off the road, it could explain a lot.

After apparently colliding with a sign warning of a sharp bend ahead, the vehicle was subsequently spotted stuck in a ditch full of reeds and other shrubs, on Mill Lane in Swindon, with the rear driver’s side wheel hanging in mid-air.

Presumably the real driver had beaten a hasty retreat shortly after the vehicle had left the road, leaving the inflatable sex doll, apparently staring out from the missing front driver’s side window, to face the music.

Access to the boot had been removed or damaged, and the front passenger side door was found to be open, with the front passenger seat leaning forward.

So far no one has come forward to remove, or claim the wreck, although someone does seemed to have re-claimed the blow-up doll!

Well I never!

I do hope you will be able to join me again tomorrow for a few more laughs plus a smidgen of history from Margaret Mills,
Scott