Dear John,
Based on our monitoring of the Bronx Zoo elephant exhibit, it’s our understanding that Happy, an elephant held alone in captivity at the Bronx Zoo by the Wildlife Conservation Society, hasn’t been outside at all in at least a week, likely longer. Elephant behavior is never normal in captivity, but this development is especially abnormal. During past years in the summer months, Happy was seen outside almost daily. We’re greatly concerned about why Happy has been confined to the zoo’s elephant barn and why she hasn’t been seen in the exhibit’s main yard. Possible reasons she isn’t outside include:
1) She’s physically unable to leave the barn.
2) She’s under great psychological distress due to her prolonged isolation in an impoverished environment and is refusing to leave the barn.
3) She’s being denied access to the main yard.
We fear that the physical and psychological distress Happy has suffered from for decades has reached a point of crisis. As we saw in our litigation that sought to #FreeHappy to an elephant sanctuary, the Bronx Zoo and WCS have a history of not telling the full story about Happy’s life at the zoo. For example, they claim that she doesn’t get along with other elephants when she in fact had a close elephant companion named Grumpy who was fatally attacked at the zoo.
To bring urgent attention to Happy, we’ve filed a complaint on her behalf with the USDA, which has the authority to investigate animal welfare concerns. Happy has a right to bodily liberty and should have been sent to a sanctuary long ago, but a 5-2 majority of the New York Court of Appeals declined to grant Happy her freedom. We filed this complaint now because it’s in Happy’s interest for us to appeal to the USDA to, at a minimum, investigate and enforce the barebones standards of the Animal Welfare Act. They also need to get Happy out of the Bronx Zoo and to an accredited elephant sanctuary before it’s too late.
