Elephants don't have standing to sue petting zoos, at least not in Connecticut, according to a Litchfield Superior Court ruling this week.

In a ruling that mirrored the results of a copyright fight in California involving a “monkey selfie,” Connecticut Judge James Bentivegna shot down a lawsuit filed on behalf of three elephants at the Commerford Zoo. Florida-based Nonhuman Rights Project filed the lawsuit in an attempt to get the elephants released into a sanctuary.

“Does the petitioner's theory that an elephant is a legal person entitled to those same liberties extended to you and I have a possibility or probability of victory?” Bentivegna wrote in his Tuesday decision. “The petitioner is unable to point to any authority which has held so, but instead relies on relics on basic human rights of freedom and equality, and points to experts' averments to similarities between elephants and human beings as evidence that this court must forge new law.”

The judge—in a stinging rebuke to the complaint—also called the lawsuit “wholly frivolous on its face.”

It's another key loss for groups seeking to establish a precedent showing animals have standing to sue. U.S. District Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California ruled in 2016 that animals have no standing to assert copyright authorship under Ninth Circuit law. That decision involved a selfie taken by a crested macaque that quickly went viral.

The Ninth Circuit sounded no more receptive during a July 12 oral argument that lead to a settlement. Under the deal, the photographer, whose camera was used to take the selfie, agreed to donate 25 percent of any future revenues from the images to charities dedicated to protecting the crested macaques in Indonesia.

At issue in Connecticut were three female elephants at the petting zoo: Beulah and Minnie, two Asian elephants, and Karen, an African elephant.

Attorney Steven Wise, founder of the nonprofit, argued last month that the elephants are legal persons with the fundamental right to bodily liberty. Wise said the animals were also autonomous.

The Commerford Zoo, which did not have an attorney, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

The Nonhuman Rights Project is represented by David Zabel, a principal with Cohen & Wolf in Bridgeport. He also did not respond to a request for comment.