Court: Happy the Elephant isn’t a person

The New York Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that though 51-year-old Happy the Elephant is an intelligent being, defining her as a human with rights would destabilize modern society. The Nonhuman Rights Project filed a petition in 2018 asking the court to allow Happy to sue the Bronx Zoo for a writ of habeas corpus for cruel confinement. It said that since many of the elephants she came to the zoo with had died and the ones remaining bullied her, the zoo should relocate her to a sanctuary. 

What were the grounds for the decision? The writ of habeas corpus is a way to challenge illegal confinement for humans. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said in the 5-2 decision that there is nothing in legal precedent that extends habeas corpus to nonhumans such as pets, service animals, and animals helping with work. Others have brought similar cases before courts in the past. The Nonhuman Right Project also unsuccessfully asked the court to grant personhood to a chimpanzee in New York.

Dig deeper: Read Julie Borg’s article in Beginnings on when the case was first brought to court.