Send Happy and Patty to Sanctuary!

Action Alert

Take Action to Help #FreeHappy and #FreePatty

After almost a lifetime in captivity, Asian 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 autonomous animals. They 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 elephants like 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 email the ex-officio trustees of the Wildlife Conservation Society—New York City Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams, Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso—and ask them to urge the Bronx Zoo to close its elephant exhibit and send Happy and Patty to a sanctuary.

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Please demand that the Bronx Zoo close their elephant exhibit

Hello,

As an elected official representing New York City residents and an ex-officio trustee of the Wildlife Conservation Society, you are in a powerful position to help secure the release of Happy and Patty— two Asian elephants who have spent over 45 years in captivity at the Bronx Zoo—to a sanctuary where they can live freely with other elephants.

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The Bronx Zoo, by forcing Happy and Patty to live solitary lives on display in a small enclosure, has deprived them of their freedom and environmental stimuli 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, “Simply put, the Bronx Zoo’s exhibit is too small to meet the needs of Happy or any elephant. Happy deserves to live the rest of her life at one of [the] two [US elephant] sanctuaries, where the utmost care will be given to her individual needs and she’ll have the space and conditions needed to heal and to form psychologically necessary bonds with other elephants.”

Happy and Patty have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of other elephants who, having suffered for years in solitary confinement as they have, thrived when released to sanctuaries like The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the Performing Animal Welfare Society.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which manages the Bronx Zoo, committed to closing its elephant exhibit upon the death of one or more of its elephants, which happened over three years ago when it euthanized Maxine. Today, Happy and Patty each live alone in separate parts of the exhibit.

Now is the time for the WCS to follow through on its promise and close the elephant exhibit. Please join Dr. Joyce Poole, numerous public figures such as Mia Farrow, and almost 1.5 million people who signed a petition calling for Happy’s freedom in urging the Bronx Zoo to release Happy and Patty to an elephant sanctuary.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, [Your information here]