Today on NPR’s The Brian Lehrer Show, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio discussed our campaign to #FreeHappy from the Bronx Zoo to a sanctuary, saying “something doesn’t feel right” about keeping Happy at the Bronx Zoo and “there’s a reason social animals [like elephants] might be deeply affected by that experience.” We applaud the Mayor for recognizing the social needs of elephants and why so many New Yorkers are urging her release to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee or the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California. We’ve made sure and will continue to make sure his office has the facts concerning why Happy needs and deserves sanctuary, as detailed by world-renowned elephant experts like Dr. Joyce Poole, who has made clear that “the Bronx Zoo’s exhibit is too small to meet the needs of Happy or any elephant” and that the Bronx Zoo’s Director “appears to be unaware of the extremely positive transformations that have taken place when other captive elephants have been given the freedom that larger space in sanctuaries offer.”
TY @NYCMayor @BilldeBlasio for recognizing, along w/many New Yorkers, that "something doesn't feel right" about keeping Happy at the Bronx Zoo. As he just told @BrianLehrer: "There's a reason social animals [like elephants] might be deeply affected by that experience." #FreeHappy
— Nonhuman Rights (@NonhumanRights) October 4, 2019
Thank you so much to everyone who contacted The Brian Lehrer Show to #AskTheMayor about Happy and to Brian Lehrer for voicing NYC residents’ concerns. You can listen to the segment here!