A federal court in the United States has recognized hippos that belonged to Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar as a people.

A judge in the United States has declared that Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ can be recognized as humans.

The creatures are offspring of the famed Colombian drug lord’s hippos, and they now have legal rights as “interested people” thanks to a Cincinatti federal court decree.

The issue concerns a legal battle with the Colombian government over whether to kill or sterilize hippos, which are rapidly increasing in number and posing harm to the country’s ecosystem.

The ruling has been lauded by animal rights organizations as a watershed event, but a legal expert has cautioned that it will be ignored in the South American country.

According to Camilo Burbano Cifuentes, a criminal law professor at the Universidad Externado de Colombia, “The ruling has no impact in Colombia because they only have an impact within their own territories. It will be the Colombian authorities who decide what to do with the hippos and not the American ones.”

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