PETITION TARGET: NYC Committee on Health Chair Lynn Schulman
Happy the elephant was ripped from her wild home and sold to a now-defunct zoo. In the years that followed, she ended up at the Bronx Zoo in New York, where she survived the death of her partner elephant and for years has been forced to live solitarily on a 1-acre parcel of land, separated by a fence from the zoo’s other elephant in captivity, according to news reports.
But that could soon change for Happy and Patty, the other elephant cruelly confined to captivity in New York City, if a newly-introduced bill that would put an end to cruel elephant captivity in the Big Apple passes.
Int 0963-2023, introduced by Councilmember Shahana Hanif, would require at least 15 acres per captive elephant and an enclosure that sufficiently imitates their wild homes — essentially banning elephant captivity as there are no environments like that in New York City, according to news reports. The legislation also would ban riding elephants, forcing them to work or perform, or using them in “educational” exhibits.
If passed, the Bronx Zoo would have to drastically improve its elephant enclosures or finally be forced to give up custody of Happy and Patty, the last two elephants living in New York City, who are confined to only one acre each at the zoo and forced to live separately.
Elephants – who love their families, can recognize themselves in a mirror, and mourn the loss of loved ones – don’t deserve to be put on display for human “entertainment.”
Sign our petition to urge NYC Committee on Health Chair Lynn Schulman and other NY legislators to support the passage of this bill and so set a compassionate precedent for the rest of the nation.
