Animal-rights lawyers in New York have argued legal personhood for their client Happy the elephant.
Attorney Steven Wise, president of the non-profit Nonhuman Rights Project, believes the 48-year-old elephant is an autonomous being who has been detained illegally in captivity at the Bronx Zoo – due to her personhood – and must be released immediately.
As a result, Wise is arguing personhood is a ‘capacity for rights’ and is seeking a writ of habeas corpus – or the right to challenge an individual’s confinement in court.
The Nonhuman Rights Project is hoping that through Happy’s case it can effect a legal breakthrough that will elevate the status of elephants, which the group calls ‘extraordinary complex creatures’, who, like humans, should have the fundamental right to liberty.
Animal-rights lawyers representing Happy the elephant have argued in a New York court that their client should be considered a person and insisted she’s actually rather unhappy with her home at the Bronx Zoo
Her attorney Steven Wise (above in 2014), president of the non-profit Nonhuman Rights Project, believes the 48-year-old elephant is an autonomous being who has been detained illegally in captivity – due to her personhood – and must be released immediately.
This is not the group’s first idealistic pursuit of animal personhood, having failed on a number of separate occasions in recent years.
Similar attempts have included arguing that dogs may be ‘legal persons’ too, as well as two chimpanzees.
Of the latter case, a New York appeals court ruled in 2017 that Kiko and Tommy, two chimps in their 30s kept in captivity in the state, could not be considered as persons in order to invoke habeas corpus.
The judge ruled that while chimps share fundamental characteristics with humans, it would be near-impossible to hold any ape to account for its personhood by arresting and prosecuting it for a crime.
Another blow to the campaign came in a case in Connecticut in August, where, similarly to Happy’s case, a judge ruled that three elephants – Beulah, Minnie, and Karen – could not be deemed persons.
But undeterred by the successive failures, Wise is now fighting on Happy’s behalf, determined to see the creature relocated to a sanctuary after spending almost all her life in a one-acre enclosure in the Bronx Zoo, having been captured along with six other calves – Sleepy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Doc, Dopey and Bashful – in Thailand in the 1970s, and brought over to the US.
Happy has spent almost all her life in a one-acre enclosure in the Bronx Zoo, having been captured along with six other calves – Sleepy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Doc, Dopey and Bashful – in Thailand, and brought over to the US
Happy and Grumpy cohabited together until 2002, when they were relocated to an enclosure with two other elephants, Maxine and Patty. However, the new living arrangement proved to be a fatal mistake as Grumpy was killed by Maxine and Patty in an attack.
Happy was never able to live with the duo contentedly from there on out, with a recent reconciliation attempt failing badly.
For the past 13 years she has lived alone, separated from the other elephants by a barrier.
Wise is arguing that the arrangement is detrimental because elephants are social creatures and Happy should be moved to a far larger sanctuary in California, which has other elephants.
‘Wouldn’t that just be like a larger prison?’ Bronx supreme court judge Alison Tuitt said, adding that Happy has lived in the enclosure for decades and has never stopped eating, a sign of depression.
‘That’s a bit like saying the Earth is a prison,’ Wise replied, continuing: ‘To cram an elephant into 1 acre of land, it’s like Attica state prison.’
Wise said in a sanctuary animals are free to choose friends and live the life of an autonomous being.
During a length testimony, Wise compared the elephant’s situation to the plight of slaves in the US, who weren’t considered fully human, and pointed out that portions of the Amazon rainforest have been protected under human-like rights.
‘She is one depressed elephant,’ Wise said of Happy. ‘She’s being harmed every day’.
During a length testimony, Wise compared the elephant’s situation to the plight of slaves in the US, who weren’t considered fully human, and pointed out that portions of the Amazon rainforest have been protected under human-like rights
A spokeswoman for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Bronx Zoo, said that Happy isn’t languishing, nor kept in isolation.
Jim Breheny, the zoo’s director, called the lawsuit ‘ludicrous’ to the Guardian and said the Nonhuman Rights Project is ‘exploiting the Bronx Zoo elephants to advance their own failing cause’.
Another WCS spokesperson said: ‘It would be irresponsible and risky for Happy’s well-being for us to bow to uninformed outside voices with political agendas.’
For now, Judge Truitt has ordered Happy to stay at the Bronx Zoo, with next arguments set to be heard on January 6, 2020.
Mr. Wise said it is in the elephant’s interest to remain there for now so that the proceedings on habeas corpus can continue.
Wise added the Nonhuman Rights Project is ready to settle if Happy is moved to the group’s preferred animal sanctuary in California or alternatively, Tennessee.