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Cases, News

National Geographic Feature on the Fight to #FreeHappy

By Lauren Choplin on August 4, 2021
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“We’ve consumed Happy as a society … But what have we given back to Happy?” – Dr. Kelsey Leonard, scientist and member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, as quoted in “A person or a thing? Inside the fight for animal personhood”

Today National Geographic published a feature story on our historic legal fight to free Happy the elephant from the Bronx Zoo to a sanctuary. Written by investigative reporter Rachel Fobar with illustrations by Jamiel Law, the story explores the significance of Happy’s elephant rights case, the NhRP’s unique approach to securing legal rights for nonhuman animals, and more.

Click here to read the article.

After reading the article, you can take a few more steps to help Happy by:

  1. Sharing this story and emailing editor@natgeo.com to thank them for publishing it.
  2. Using our action alert to urge Jim Breheny, Executive Director of the Bronx Zoo, and Cristián Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, to free Happy to an elephant sanctuary.
  3. Signing and sharing this Change.org petition calling for sanctuary for Happy.

Thank you for helping us #FreeHappy!

Lauren is the NhRP’s Communications Director. She heads up internal and external communications, coordinating media coverage of our legal and policy work and managing our blog and social media pages.

Must Reads

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