Dear John,

Five Catholic theologians have submitted a brief to the New York Court of Appeals in support of the elephant rights case brought by the Nonhuman Rights Project to #FreeHappy the elephant from solitary confinement in the Bronx Zoo to an elephant sanctuary.

Drawing on their expertise in Catholic moral theology, ethics, animal ethics, ecological theology, theology and science, and bioethics, their amici curiae (“friends of the court”) brief urges New York’s highest court to accept the NhRP’s recently filed appeal in Happy’s habeas corpus case and argues that:

Happy is not a thing for us to confine, use, and put on display in a zoo (even in an attempt to produce a good outcome), but rather a particular kind of creature who God made to flourish in a particular way—a way some academics refer to as a telos. As we explain [in this brief], we believe Happy cannot flourish as this kind of creature while captive in the Bronx Zoo and that she would be significantly better able [to] become the kind of creature God made her to be in a sanctuary … Non-human animals belong to God, not to us. They are God’s creatures, not ours.

At the end of January, the NhRP filed a motion urging the Court of Appeals to hear arguments in support of Happy’s right to liberty under New York’s common law of habeas corpus after New York’s First Department Appellate Court dismissed Happy’s case. The NhRP’s motion argues that the issues in Happy’s case are novel and deeply important at the local, state, national, and international levels, and the First Department committed numerous, serious legal errors in its decision to dismiss.

Learn more on Happy’s client page. For all the ways you can help #FreeHappy right now, click here.

Thank you, and we’ll keep you posted!

Lauren Choplin
Communications Director, the NhRP