[link removed] [[link removed]]
image of ... [[link removed]]
Dear John,
As part of last year’s World Elephant Week campaign, Dr. Bob Jacobs–a neuroscientist who’s conducted research on the mammalian brain since 1984 and co-authored a 2021 study on the traumatic impact of impoverished, captive environments on animals’ brains–shared with you why he supports elephants’ right to liberty. “Zoos have perfected their propaganda machine (just as cigarette companies did decades before),” he wrote.
This year, he felt moved to share his thoughts on why Happy hasn’t been seen outside in almost a month now. As we continue to raise the alarm about Happy’s suffering–which, as Bob points out, is emotional as much as it is physical– you can help by using this action alert to send a message to the director of the Bronx Zoo [[link removed]] , calling for transparency and for Happy and Patty’s release to a sanctuary.
Dr. Bob Jacobs reflects on Happy's plight:
Being essentially imprisoned for decades takes its toll.
Happy’s existence (I hesitate to call it a “life”) in the Bronx Zoo reflects her dismal surroundings. Happy no longer appears interested in living, and I can’t blame her.
The pain of osteoarthritis (a common ailment in captive elephants who are confined on hard substrates and cannot exercise properly) is debilitating. Chronic lack of autonomy and the ability to live freely and make choices for oneself robs one of a sense of agency, making life purposeless. Lack of social interaction with conspecifics, which is essential for socially sophisticated animals like elephants, further deprives Happy of a meaningful existence.
Happy appears to have now retreated into her prison-like barn, no longer interested in the outside world. She is an individual who has suffered a lifetime in captivity, on display for human “entertainment,” robbed of her “personhood.” And yet, the zoo claims she is simply “choosing” to spend time in the barn.
She’s never really had a choice or a chance. Now, she has withdrawn from the outside world, from life itself, declining in a depressing cell. Happy is now an individual who is anything but what her name implies.
ADD YOUR NAME [[link removed]]
Thank you for your continued advocacy,
The NhRP
[link removed] [[link removed]]
The NhRP is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation (Tax ID #: 04-3289466). It is solely through your donations that we can continue to work for the recognition and protection of fundamental rights for nonhuman animals.
FOLLOW
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
DONATE [[link removed]]
GET YOUR NhRP GEAR AT OUR ONLINE SHOP [[link removed]]
The Nonhuman Rights Project
611 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
#345
Washington, DC 20003
United States
[email protected] [[email protected]]
Click here to unsubscribe. [[link removed]]