Dfor nearly fifteen years, Happy, a now 49-year-old elephant, has lived in deep solitude in a leafy enclosure at the Bronx Zoo. Far from Thailand where he would have been captured as a baby in the early 1970s, with six other baby calves, as reported by New York Times few years ago.
Happy’s predicament has caught the attention of animal rights groups, including the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP). In October 2018, the organization sued the Bronx Zoo, requesting that he be transferred to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee and contesting his illegal detention, while demanding recognition of the animal’s legal personality and of his right to bodily freedom.
Happy made history in February by being one of the first animals to have a habeas corpus hearing – a procedure at stake in determining whether the animal can be legally recognized as a person, and not as a good. For this, the NhRP maintains that Happy is a very intelligent and self-aware being. After a first decision by a judge who felt that the elephant was not “Illegally detained”, a new judgment must be made on appeal, Thursday, November 19.
“A very intelligent being”
The zoo has repeatedly assured in recent years that Happy has contact “Tactile and auditory” with the other elephants in the zoo. What the NhRP association considers insufficient. “Our experts say that, like all elephants, Happy is an autonomous being who has evolved to walk 20 kilometers or more per day as a member of a large, multigenerational social group., said Steven M. Wise, founder and president of the NhRP, in a press release in 2015. The entirety of the elephant space in the zoo is equivalent to one percent of the space it travels in a single day in the wild. “
Happy has not always lived alone. For almost 25 years, he grew up with Grumpy. The zoo had other elephants, all guarded in pairs. In July 2002, Happy and Grumpy were placed in an enclosure with another couple, Maxine and Patty. Patty and Maxine charged Grumpy, who fell and had to be euthanized from his injuries. Happy was then plunged into long isolation.
A precedent for other animals
More than Happy’s well-being, the question opens up a wider debate: is it fair to keep smart and complex animals like elephants in captivity?
Besides Happy’s situation, the idea is also to set a legal precedent for other animals. Because the defense of the elephant is not the first contact of the NhRP with the courts. His clients also include three Connecticut elephants and four chimpanzees. So far, Steven M. Wise’s attempts to free three chimpanzees and three other elephants have failed. But Happy’s case could change all that.
