Dear John,

This was a difficult year for many (after a series of difficult years); we at the NhRP have had our struggles too. But 2022 also showed how many people want to live in, and aren’t afraid to demand, a world where we treat others with respect and dignity, including nonhuman animals. As one massive example of the legal change we’re steadily pursuing and achieving, this year two judges on New York’s highest court went against the majority of the court and joined us in calling for our elephant client Happy’s right to liberty. Their dissents will help put an end to the imprisonment of elephants and other autonomous nonhuman animals in the US and around the world.

That’s why–despite the news we shared this week that the New York Court of Appeals wouldn’t reconsider its decision in Happy’s case–we’re still, with your help, in a powerful legal position going into 2023.  If you can, please donate to the NhRP before the year’s end so we can build on the historic progress we made together this year. Thank you, and happy holidays! 

Mickey Suzuki
Development Director, the NhRP

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren (the NhRP)
Date: Thursday, Dec 15, 2022
Subject: “We all need each other.” ⚖️

The sun was shining down on the courthouse steps as we waited in near silence for the NhRP legal team to emerge. The only sounds were the occasional whispered remark and the chirping of birds absorbed in their afternoon’s activities. Across the street, some of our client’s hundreds of thousands of supporters were gathered. With NhRP staff, they’d just watched a livestream of the court proceedings on a screen set up in the park, with murmurs of amazement as a judge on the New York Court of Appeals–the highest court in the US to hear an animal rights case–said of the Bronx Zoo elephant exhibit, “Even a gilded cage is still a cage.”

At the same time, people around the world who’d watched the hearing online posted messages of support on social media: “Such a proud moment.” “Everyone should have the right to be free!” “This is such encouraging news for all of us fighting for the rights of nonhumans around the world.” “The matter boils down to living in a closet, being exploited and owned for profit after being kidnapped.” “This is important for our growth as humans also … We all need each other.” “With you today in strength and spirit.” “This is monumental to the healing of our world on many levels.”

That day, virtually every major news outlet in the world reported on this historic moment in the fight for nonhuman animal rights, exemplified by the life of a single elephant with a sadly ironic name–Happy.

Minutes later, following the wordless exit of lawyers for the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the Bronx Zoo, the NhRP legal team walked out of the courthouse together, joining our supporters in celebrating the fact that Happy had become the first nonhuman being to have a hearing in a US high court to determine the lawfulness of her imprisonment.

With your support, she won’t be the last. The NhRP consists of a small but fiercely dedicated group of people who’ll never stop fighting for our clients’ rights. For Happy and all who’ve suffered as she has, please donate to the NhRP today so we can meet our year-end goal of $100,000. Your donation will help ensure we can grow this organization and movement and continue to make legal history for nonhuman animals in 2023.

Thank you for all you’ve done to help nonhuman animals this year, John. We need you in this fight, and so do they.

Lauren Choplin
Communications Director, the NhRP