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Lawyers call for transfer of Bronx Zoo’s last 2 elephants to sanctuary
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Feb 12, 2025
Modified Feb 13, 2025
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Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Feb 12, 2025
Modified Feb 13, 2025
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Lawyers are urging city officials to send the Bronx Zoo’s last two elephants to a sanctuary.
The New York City Bar Association sent city officials a letter on Wednesday calling for the immediate transfer of Happy and Patty, who have lived at the zoo for nearly 50 years.
Public concerns about the elephants’ welfare have been ongoing for years. In 2018, a lawsuit — which was later dismissed — alleged that Happy had been “unlawfully imprisoned” and called for her transfer to a sanctuary.
Recent concerns about Happy’s well-being resurfaced last summer after she had not been seen in her exhibit for two weeks. The Bronx Zoo responded by reassuring the public that Happy was healthy.
Photos later circulated on social media showing her lying on her side with what some speculated to be visible foot damage. The animal rights group that raised the alarm also said the zoo declined its August request for Happy’s veterinary records.
In its letter, the City Bar argued that the city has both the authority and responsibility to intervene, citing the city’s financial support of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoo.
“New Yorkers, whose tax money supports these budgets and who care deeply about the physical and psychological well-being of zoo animals, deserve to know that there is adequate oversight by the City of its funding and the zoo fund-recipient, and that the animals under the zoo’s care enjoy robust physical and psychological health,” the letter reads.
The letter was sent to the city’s health, parks and cultural affairs departments, as well as the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the City Council.
"New York City has a longstanding relationship with the Wildlife Conservation Society and The Bronx Zoo to educate, engage, and inspire New Yorkers and their families through the wonders of the natural world, City Hall spokesperson Sophia Askari said in an email. "We appreciate the NYC Bar Association’s concern for animal welfare and will review the letter closely."
A spokesperson for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Bronx Zoo, said recent claims about the welfare of the zoo’s Asian elephants are misleading and part of a pattern of misinformation spread by outside groups.
“WCS and the Bronx Zoo have long been subjected to targeted harassment regarding our Asian elephants,” said WCS spokesperson Mary Dixon.
Dixon said the elephants are well cared for.
“They have a team of dedicated professional veterinarians, keepers, curators and outside elephant consultants — that monitor them constantly,” Dixon said. “We are inspected by the USDA and accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums with no violations cited.”
Research shows that zoos harm elephants’ mental health or quality of life, according to Macarena Montes, an attorney and animal rights scholar at Harvard University.
“It’s clear that elephants are never going to be OK in zoos. No zoo can offer what an elephant needs from a cognitive, social or even an emotional point of view,” she said. “Animals belong to a species where they live in big herds with a matriarch, they have a very complex social organization, they walk several kilometers a day.”
Montes told Gothamist that resistance to transferring elephants to animal sanctuaries is often tied to the financial incentives zoos have for keeping them.
“Zoos are an industry that profits on the exhibition of animals, they profit on entertainment,” she said. “Zoos have a very well-known discourse that their activity promotes conservation and education, but the reality is that it’s entertainment.”
The Bronx Zoo acquired Patty in 1973 and Happy in 1977, according to the Nonhuman Rights Project. Other elephants, including Grumpy and Maxine, lived at the zoo during that time but have since died.
The City Bar pointed to a similar decision by the Oakland Zoo, which sent its last captive elephant to a Tennessee sanctuary last year.
“We implore the City, acting through its various agencies and the City Council, to relieve Happy’s and Patty’s obvious suffering and exercise its powers and/or its influence to allow Happy and Patty the chance to live out the remainder of their lives at an accredited sanctuary, free of the impoverishments they have been forced to endure,” the letter reads.
In a statement, City Councilmember Shahana Hanif said she had "immense respect" for the zoo but shared the bar's concerns about the elephants' well-being. "I agree that they would be better served at a wildlife sanctuary that meets the strengthened standards for elephants that my bill, Intro. 213, aims to establish," she said.
This story has been updated with comment from Wildlife Conservation Society spokesperson Mary Dixon, City Councilmember Shahana Hanif and City Hall spokesperson Sophia Askari.
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Giulia Heyward
Giulia Heyward is a breaking news reporter on the Day-Of desk. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or more securely on signal at 917-715-1458.
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