Help free the elephants at the Bronx Zoo to a sanctuary!

Action Alert

Ask the Wildlife Conservation Society's new CEO to close the Bronx Zoo elephant exhibit and send Happy and Patty to a sanctuary

After almost a lifetime in captivity, elephants Happy and Patty deserve to be freed from the Bronx Zoo and sent to an elephant sanctuary.

Science and human experience make clear that elephants are cognitively, emotionally, and socially complex beings who have the capacity to exercise free will and make choices about how to spend their days and live their lives, just as human beings do. Forcing Happy and Patty to live separately and alone in a small unnatural environment, where they are prevented from exercising free will and engaging in their innate behaviors, causes physical and emotional suffering.

It's time for the Bronx Zoo to close its elephant exhibit and send Happy and Patty to an elephant sanctuary where they can live freely with other elephants in an environment that is similar to their natural habitat.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Please complete the form below to send a message to Robert Menzi, the newly appointed Interim President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the Bronx Zoo, and ask him to send Happy and Patty to an elephant sanctuary.

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Please close the Bronx Zoo elephant exhibit

Hello,

Congratulations on your new position as Interim President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. You are in a powerful position to help countless animals, including Happy and Patty, two Asian elephants who have lived at the Bronx Zoo for over 45 years. Both Happy and Patty are each held alone in the exhibit. I ask that your first action in your new role be to close the Bronx Zoo’s elephant exhibit and send Happy and Patty to an elephant sanctuary where they will have ample space to roam and be able to live with other elephants in an environment similar to their natural habitat.

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Science and human experience make clear that elephants are cognitively, emotionally, and socially complex beings who have the capacity to exercise free will and make choices about how to spend their days and live their lives, just as human beings do. The Bronx Zoo, by having Happy and Patty live apart in a small enclosure, has deprived them of the environmental stimuli and companionship necessary to meet their physical, psychological, and social needs. As Dr. Joyce Poole, one of the foremost authorities on elephants, wrote in a New York Daily News op-ed, “[s]imply put, the Bronx Zoo’s exhibit is too small to meet the needs of Happy or any elephant.”

Happy and Patty have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of other elephants who, after living for decades in zoos and circuses, thrived when released to sanctuaries. At an elephant sanctuary, Happy and Patty will have ample space to roam and be able to live with other elephants.

The Wildlife Conservation Society committed to closing the Bronx Zoo’s elephant exhibit upon the death of one of its elephants, which happened in 2018 when Maxine was euthanized. Now you have the opportunity to do the right thing for these elephants and follow through on the WCS’s promise.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, [Your information here]