Happy the elephant is not a person, New York court rules in major animal rights case

A top court in the United States has delivered a landmark judgement in a case that argued whether human rights are also applicable for animals. The court in New York ruled that Happy, an elephant who is the resident of Bronx Zoo since the 1970s, cannot be considered a human being legally and as a result, the rights will not be the same for Happy as it is for a person. It was a blow to an animal rights group known as the Nonhuman Rights Project who filed the case in hope of releasing the elephant from the Bronx Zoo. The argument from the group was that Happy is an autonomous, cognitively complex elephant who should enjoy rights same as a human, according to The Guardian.

The official ruling, written by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, said that “while no one disputes that elephants are intelligent beings deserving of proper care and compassion”, the rules and rights that apply to human beings cannot be extended to the elephant in these circumstances.

Happy was born in Asia and the elephant was brought to New York as an old-year-old along with Grumpy, a fellow elephant. The zoo authorities expressed their relief at the ruling as they feared that a ruling in favour of Happy can result in similar cases about other animals in the facility.

This is the second time that the case of Happy went to court after a lower court had already denied human rights to the elephant. The court earlier observed that the ruling in favour of Happy “would have an enormous destabilizing impact on modern society”.

“Indeed, followed to its logical conclusion, such a determination would call into question the very premises underlying pet ownership, the use of service animals, and the enlistment of animals in other forms of work,” read the decision according to The Guardian report.

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