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Dear John,
As Happy’s advocates, we often speak about the immeasurable trauma and stress she’s endured—a young calf, stolen from the wild, separated from her family, and forced into captivity. But there’s more to this story. The trauma and stress of her sudden capture wasn’t only hers to bear.
We’ll never know what the surviving members of Happy’s wild herd remember about the day she was captured. But if they’re still out there, we believe they remember her.
They may remember the morning when the trucks came.
The crashing of trees.
The gunshots.
The screams.
The chaos.
And then … the silence that followed.
An elephant capture in the 1970s might have involved harassing the herd with trucks, helicopters, or gunshots to separate and target the young. It might have involved tranquilizers or pit traps. We don’t have to know what method they used to know it was a day of great fear and loss for the entire herd.
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Happy was one of seven young elephants captured that day in Thailand. She was sold to an American safari park for $800. She was given a human name, loaded into a shipping crate, and sent across the world … Her family never saw her again.
For elephants, family is everything. Elephants form strong, multigenerational bonds. Female elephants, particularly mothers and daughters, often stay together for life.
I think about Happy’s mother, and how she must have searched for her. I imagine the herd paused every time a young elephant cried out in the rainforest, wondering if it was her. I imagine she never stopped grieving the sudden loss of her calf.
The story of Happy’s capture is painful—and far from unique. But Happy herself has become someone quite extraordinary.
In 2005, Happy became the first elephant to pass a mirror self-recognition test, a sign of self-awareness once thought to be uniquely human. In 2018, she became the first elephant to receive a habeas hearing in what The Atlantic referred to as “the most important animal-rights case of the 21st century.” Although the court denied her freedom, the case marked a turning point. For the first time in US history, two judges on New York’s highest court wrote courageous dissents in support of a nonhuman animal’s right to liberty. These dissents will be cited in cases calling for elephants’ freedom for decades to come, and we’re confident they’ll one day become the law of the land like other dissents before them where judges courageously took on an unjust legal status quo.
Today, Happy remains in captivity at the Bronx Zoo along with Patty, each held alone in a different part of the tiny exhibit. She continues to be a powerful symbol of why we fight—for elephants, for chimpanzees, and for all nonhuman animals who are suffering because they’re rightless–and we continue to push for her and Patty’s release to a sanctuary through Intro 213, a first-of-its-kind bill we helped develop that would end elephant captivity in New York City for good.
And Happy and Patty have allies around the world calling for their freedom, thanks to you.
Today, our fight for elephant rights continues with our court case in Hawaii— with two more cases in the work s — because no mother should have to grieve her stolen calf. No herd should be left wondering what became of one of their own. And no autonomous being should be forced to suffer in captivity.
Will you help us continue to fight for fundamental legal change for nonhuman animals, like Happy? Donations made today will be matched up to $10,000 thanks to a generous donor [[link removed]] .
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Thank you for standing with Happy, and for believing that a more just future for nonhuman animals is both possible , and worth fighting for.
With hope and perseverance,
Kelly Holt
Digital Coordinator, the NhRP
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