{"id":764208,"date":"2021-07-07T07:47:18","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T11:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=764208"},"modified":"2021-07-07T08:34:41","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T12:34:41","slug":"freehappy-brief-filed-with-new-yorks-highest-court-in-landmark-elephant-rights-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=764208","title":{"rendered":"#FreeHappy: Legal brief filed with New York\u2019s highest court in landmark elephant rights case"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Happy is a 50-year-old Asian elephant who has been held in captivity in the Bronx Zoo\u2019s elephant exhibit for nearly half a century, the last 15 years of which she has been forced to live alone. <\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

LAUREN CHAPLIN:<\/strong> The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) filed a brief with New York\u2019s highest court in our habeas corpus case demanding the right to bodily liberty of an elephant named Happy held alone in captivity in the Bronx Zoo… Happy is a 50-year-old Asian elephant who has been held in captivity in the Bronx Zoo\u2019s one-acre elephant exhibit for nearly half a century, the last 15 years of which she has been forced to live alone. In 2005, she made scientific history as the first elephant to demonstrate self-awareness via the mirror test.<\/p>\n

In May, the New York Court of Appeals\u2014one of the most influential state courts in the US\u2014agreed to consider the NhRP\u2019s arguments on behalf of Happy the elephant, thereby marking the first time in world history that the highest court of an English-speaking jurisdiction will hear a case that demands that a nonhuman animal be given a legal right…<\/p>\n

The NhRP\u2019s 14,000-word brief<\/a> brings together centuries of case law including landmark common law and civil rights cases, the science of elephant cognition and behavior, the origin of legal rights, judicial rulings from outside the US that have granted rights to nonhuman animals, and ethical arguments against elephant captivity. The NhRP is urging the Court to end Happy\u2019s imprisonment as a right-less legal \u201cthing\u201d and recognize her fundamental right to bodily liberty protected by the common law of habeas corpus. A ruling in Happy\u2019s favor would require her release from the Bronx Zoo to an elephant sanctuary \u201cwhere her autonomy may be realized to the greatest extent possible”…<\/p>\n

Happy\u2019s case has received support from the world-respected experts in elephant cognition and behavior, animal rights law, theology, and philosophy… A Change.org petition<\/a> calling for Happy\u2019s release from solitary confinement has nearly 1.4 million signatures and continues to grow… The Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the Bronx Zoo, have until Aug. 23rd to file a reply, to which the NhRP will file our reply by Sept. 7th. The Court will not determine a date for oral arguments until after this last filing deadline. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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