Candy the Chimp Caged at Dixie Landin’
Cathy Breaux, et al. V. Samuel B. Haynes, Jr., et al.
In 2015, the Animal Legal Defense Fund sued Dixie Landin’, an amusement park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, under the Endangered Species Act for its mistreatment of a 50-year-old chimpanzee named Candy.
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When the Animal Legal Defense Fund brought suit in 2015, Candy was a 50-year-old chimpanzee. She’d been held captive for decades, alone in a barren cage at Dixie Landin’, an amusement park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors found repeated violations of the Animal Welfare Act, through Candy’s years in this cage.
Several months prior to the Animal Legal Defense Fund filing the lawsuit, the the United States Fish & Wildlife Service had eliminated a 25-year-old rule that withheld the protections of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) from captive chimpanzees.
With the ESA now recognized as applicable, the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s lawsuit argued that the conditions of Candy’s captivity constituted an unlawful “taking” under the law. The court was asked to transfer Candy to Chimp Haven, a respected Louisiana sanctuary. Candy died in 2017, before the Animal Legal Defense Fund was able to win her release.
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