LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The Michigan Supreme Court has officially closed the courthouse door on seven Upper Peninsula chimpanzees, declining to hear a closely watched case that sought to give the animals a legal path to challenge their captivity through a writ of habeas corpus.

The case, which we reported on in October 2025, was brought by the Nonhuman Rights Project, which argued that the chimpanzees at the DeYoung Family Zoo in Wallace are intelligent, autonomous beings entitled to have a court decide whether they should be transferred to an accredited sanctuary.

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Lower courts weren’t persuaded, ruling that under Michigan law, chimpanzees are not legal “persons” eligible for habeas corpus relief. By declining to hear the appeal, the state’s highest court left those rulings intact.