Dear John,

Happy World Elephant Day—an annual global event dedicated to the protection of elephants.

Today we’re honored to have gained the support of actor and longtime animal advocate Alec Baldwin in our fight to free elephants Happy and Patty from the Bronx Zoo to a sanctuary. If you’re on Instagram, please join us in thanking Alec for caring about the freedom of elephants and for sharing the first of the NhRP’s three World Elephant Day posts!

In other NhRP news:

• As you might have seen on social media or your local news, many zoos celebrate World Elephant Day as they continue to deprive elephants of their freedom. Fortunately, with each passing year, more and more people and institutions, including some zoos, recognize how wrong it is to imprison these nonhuman beings. Today, in an op-ed published in The Fresno Bee, we’re urging the Fresno Chaffee Zoo to join them.
  
  As we write, the Fresno Chaffee Zoo doesn’t need a court order to change the world for these elephants and help shift how we view and treat the species. This they can do by acknowledging elephants don’t belong in zoos, releasing Nolwazi, Amahle, and Vusmusi to a sanctuary, and closing the elephant exhibit for good, as other zoos have already done. You can help ensure future coverage of our campaign to #FreeTheFresnoElephants in The Fresno Bee by submitting a letter to the editor, thanking the paper for publishing this op-ed. 

• On August 10th, we sent a letter to lawyers for the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, offering to drop our lawsuit if the zoo agrees to release the elephants to a sanctuary. Read the letter and catch up on their court case here.
   
• The public conversation about the New York Court of Appeals’ decision in Happy’s case continues, as does the fight to free her. For example, in late July, the Bronx Times reported on how, “with change brewing in the Court of Appeals,” Happy’s case “may live to see another day,” while Dr. Joe Wills analyzed the majority decision in relation to how animal exploitation industries attempt to thwart legal progress for nonhuman animals. Read the Bronx Times’ story here and Dr. Wills’ analysis here. 

Further updates coming soon, including new cases and campaigns.

We’re grateful for your continued support, John! Visit our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter pages to see our World Elephant Day posts about Happy, Patty, Nolwazi, Amahle, Vusmusi, and Minnie. If you’d like to donate to the NhRP today, you can do so here!

For the elephants,

Lauren Choplin
Communications Director, the NhRP