Hi John,
First, thank you so much to everyone who’s joined us in expressing concern and indignation for Happy the last several weeks. With your help, the story about her disappearance from view and the lack of transparency on the part of the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society is gaining momentum.
Second, as both an attorney and as executive director of the NhRP, I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts and an update with you about Happy’s situation. Please bear with me as this email is a long one.
Earlier this summer, we noticed that Happy hadn’t been seen outside for several weeks. We, along with the elephant cognition and behavior experts we consulted, grew gravely concerned about Happy’s physical and psychological well-being and reported those concerns to the United States Department of Agriculture, which regulates the Bronx Zoo under the Animal Welfare Act. We also relayed our concerns publicly, and it didn’t take long before–with your help–we drew the attention of local journalists who’ve published articles about Happy in The City and The New York Post.
In response to our concerns, the Bronx Zoo released a statement asserting that "Happy is fine" and is "choosing" to avoid the main outdoor area.
The Bronx Zoo’s statement is self-serving and not credible. In the wild, elephants may be active for more than 20 hours a day and travel dozens of miles in search of food and social interaction. Why would Happy choose to spend all of her time inside a barn? The zoo may eventually try to blame her confinement indoors on the summer heat, but Happy is an Asian elephant adapted to a hot environment–in fact, it’s the cold New York winters that elephants can’t tolerate, not the summers. The most straightforward explanation for what’s going on may be that she feels depressed and helpless after decades of continuous confinement in a tiny and noisy space–including many years without social companionship. Or perhaps she’s sick or injured. If so, what is wrong? Why is she not well? Is she being properly treated? Regardless of the cause of her confinement, very little is known about the barn in which she appears to be spending almost every hour of the day and what her time in the barn, with all its bars and barren concrete, is actually like.
To obtain answers to these questions, I sent a letter to the Director of the Bronx Zoo yesterday (as reported here by The City) asking for proof about Happy’s condition, including recent veterinary records, elephant keeper notes, and imagery of Happy’s present condition and indoor environment. This information won’t tell us everything, but it will help us get closer to understanding what’s really going on with Happy–and the zoo’s refusal to make this information public could be telling in its own way.
Now I’d like to step back for a moment to address why we’re taking these actions. We file lawsuits demanding elephants’ right to liberty under common law habeas corpus, which is supposed to protect individuals from unjust confinement. Our historic lawsuit demanding Happy’s right to liberty concluded with two powerful dissenting opinions by New York Court of Appeals judges. However, these dissenting opinions weren’t enough to free Happy because the majority of the court fabricated a profoundly unjust, arbitrary, and legally unsound rule that only human liberty matters. Had the majority ruled in favor of the core tenets of liberty, Happy would have secured her freedom. Instead, she remains a captive at the Bronx Zoo. We expect to limit that decision one day, but for now that door appears to be closed for Happy.
Animal welfare laws are not helpful here either. The standards are low, and–unlike most laws that protect humans and corporations–there is no right to enforce even these bare-bones laws on behalf of an animal. Thus, Happy is at the mercy of the government for enforcement of animal welfare laws. The Bronx Zoo may be violating these laws by causing Happy to unjustifiably suffer due to problems such as inadequate space and lack of companionship. But without government agencies such as the USDA diligently pressing the question (which they rarely do) we will not know.
As you can see, all roads ultimately lead back to the injustice of the fact that Happy is rightless and thus has no straightforward path out of the zoo–no matter how cruel her captivity is.
But Happy deserves an environment with social companionship and more space even if that result isn’t achieved through litigation. Happy is, as we argued in her lawsuit, an individual who matters. Happy is an autonomous and cognitively complex being. She has thoughts and feelings. She remembers the past and can imagine the future. She has her own experience of the world. And right now especially, that experience appears to be defined by grave suffering due to her captivity at the Bronx Zoo. That’s why, as long as we have the resources to effectively do so, we’ll continue advocating for her to live her remaining years in a sanctuary.
We’re the last organization to expect the USDA to actually investigate and free Happy. But contacting the USDA is an immediate tool available to prompt someone to investigate and perhaps alleviate her current suffering, with the very outside chance of her (and Patty) ending up at a sanctuary as a result.
Regardless, whatever we learn will surely strengthen our calls for Happy and Patty to be released to a sanctuary. It’s possible, albeit unlikely, that even the Bronx Zoo will come to acknowledge that Happy can’t be happy there, nor can any elephant. That it’s in Happy and Patty’s best interest to close the elephant exhibit for good and send them to a sanctuary–even if it causes some marginal drop in the zoo’s revenue. We’d be the first to applaud them were they to do so.
Since they almost certainly will not do this, we’ll also continue to fight for the passage of New York City’s elephant captivity ban–the first such ban in the country. If passed, this will require the zoo to release Happy and Patty.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this lengthy email. It’s important to us to explain to you what we’re doing and why. If you’d like to help further, we encourage you to post on your social media channel of choice, joining us in calling for transparency from the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society about what’s going on. Please include the hashtags #FreeHappy and #FreePatty.
