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A photo of Happy the elephant with her trunk wrapped around the fen [[link removed]]
Seventeen years.
As of this year, that’s how long the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society have forced an elephant they call Happy to live alone in their tiny exhibit following the deaths of Happy’s companions–her fellow prisoners–Grumpy and Sammie.
Despite all evidence, the zoo and WCS claim that Happy simply doesn’t get along with other elephants–that her solitary confinement is a problem with Happy beyond their control, not a problem they caused [[link removed]] and have the power to fix.
And Happy isn’t the only elephant held alone in the exhibit. A second elephant, Patty, has been in solitary confinement for four years and counting following the death of her companion Maxine.
Elephants are highly social beings who form lifelong bonds that help them in times of stress. Research shows [[link removed]] that elephants in solitary confinement suffer similarly to human prisoners in solitary confinement.
As we wrote recently in the New York Daily News [[link removed]] , Happy’s court case has ended but the Bronx Zoo and WCS don’t need a court order to do the right thing, which is to #FreeHappy and #FreePatty to sanctuaries and permanently close the elephant exhibit, as other zoos have done.
Now and throughout 2023, there’s an important way you can help make this happen.
Like any institution, the Bronx Zoo and WCS care about their public reputations. Many people who support them and follow them on social media simply don’t know about the suffering elephants endure when deprived of their freedom in zoos and the more just life that’s possible for them in sanctuaries.
For the foreseeable future, people who live in New York will have the most power to pressure the Bronx Zoo and WCS to free Happy and Patty. However, you can help raise the alarm and call for change by commenting on the Bronx Zoo’s most recent posts on Facebook [[link removed]] , Twitter [[link removed]] , and Instagram [[link removed]] and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s most recent posts on Facebook [[link removed]] , Twitter [[link removed]] , and Instagram [[link removed]] . Share with their audiences why the Bronx Zoo and WCS’s continued imprisonment of Happy and Patty is wrong and urge them to release these elephants to sanctuaries.
Note: if you’re commenting on the Bronx Zoo’s posts on Instagram, we believe they’ve hidden from view any comments that include the hashtags #FreeHappy and #FreePatty. To increase the chance of your comment being seen, we recommend avoiding using these hashtags.
Not on social media? You can still help by sending an email directly to Robert Menzi, Interim President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, at [email protected] [[email protected]] .
Thank you for using your voice to help imprisoned elephants.
Courtney Fern
Director of Government Relations, the NhRP
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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.
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