NYC zoo elephant is being ‘unlawfully imprisoned,’ group says
An elephant named Happy who has lived mostly alone since her mate was fatally injured is being “unlawfully imprisoned” by a New York City zoo, according a legal petition filed Tuesday by an activist group.
The Nonhuman Rights Project argued Happy, who has lived at the Bronx Zoo since 1977, has similar rights to a human being and should be relocated to a larger private sanctuary where she can socialize with other elephants and roam more freely.
“Our world-class experts say that, like all elephants, Happy is an autonomous being who evolved to walk 20 or more miles a day as a member of a multi-generational large social group,” said Nonhuman Rights Project founder Steven Wise. “The entirety of the zoo’s elephant exhibit provides far less than even 1 percent of the space she would roam in a single day in the wild.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.