A New York court ruled on Tuesday that Happy, an elephant at the Bronx Zoo in the US city “is not a person” and is not being illegally imprisoned.
The National Public Radio reported that ruling in the four-year-long legal battle between the zoo and the NonHuman Rights Project (NhRP), which wanted the elephant released into the wild, the court also said elephants are intelligent beings deserving of proper care and compassion.
A petition filed by the NhRP had sought the declaration of the elephant as a “person” entitled to protection under the writ of habeas corpus. The group alleged that the elephant does not have “sufficient direct social contact” following the euthanisation of her many elephant companions, CNN reported. The elephant has been in captivity since the age of one and she has been in the zoo for the past 45 years.
“Because the writ of habeas corpus is intended to protect the liberty right of human beings to be free of unlawful confinement, it has no applicability to Happy, a nonhuman animal who is not a ‘person’ subjected to illegal detention. Thus, while no one disputes that elephants are intelligent beings deserving of proper care and compassion, the courts below properly granted the motion to dismiss the petition for a writ of habeas corpus, and we therefore affirm,” the Court of Appeals ruled, as per the zoo’s website.
The group said on its website that the Happy was “an intelligent, autonomous being who should be treated with respect and dignity, and who may be entitled to liberty”. After the verdict, Eugene Fahey, one of the judges, was quoted as saying by the group, “The issue [of] whether a nonhuman animal has a fundamental right to liberty protected by the writ of habeas corpus is profound and far-reaching. It speaks to our relationship with all the life around us. Ultimately, we will not be able to ignore it.”
While the majority decision is disappointing and frustrating, the two dissents offer tremendous hope for a future where elephants no longer suffer as Happy has and where nonhuman rights are protected alongside human rights. https://t.co/btguSBFUN0
The zoo officials were quite content with the verdict. “The Bronx Zoo takes excellent care of Happy and will continue to do so, along with all animals here at the zoo. Her well-being is assured by our dedicated staff and all the expertise they bring in providing excellent care for her for more than 40 years,” the zoo’s statement read.
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