New York State Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday An Asian elephant named Happy, who has been at the New York Zoo in the Bronx for 40 years, will have to stay at this facility as he is not legally human and cannot enjoy human rights. basis.
Animal advocacy group Nonhuman Rights argued that the elephant was illegally kept in the zoo and called for the animal to be transferred to an elephant sanctuary.
Controversy stirred up The legal principle of the habeas corpus is – summoned to guard against unlawful arrests – should be extended to “cognitively complex and autonomous” animals such as elephants.
“Order of habeas corpus, protect people’s right to freedom “The State Court of Appeals text published today does not apply to Happy, a non-person and non-human animal.”
The document alsoNo one would dispute that elephants are intelligent beings who deserve proper care and affection.“, but that is not enough to exercise his habeas corpus right.
On the other side of the lawsuit, the organization that runs the zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Society, formerly known as the Zoological Society of New York, argued that the elephant was well cared for by professionals.
According to The New York Times, the case appears to be the first to rise so high in a British court on an issue questioning whether an animal is supposedly worthy of “personality”.
Last month, she filed another habeas corpus petition with the San Francisco Supreme Court for Nonhuman Rights. Three elephants held captive at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in California are demanding “liberty and the right to release in a sanctuary.”
Happy (Happy, Spanish) was born in the early 1970s, possibly in Thailand, according to The New York Times.
It was later captured and brought to the United States, where it was purchased for $800 according to Inhuman Rights, and was found at a Florida zoo along with six elephants, each named after the ‘Snow White and Snow White’ characters. the seven Dwarfs’.