As we at the NhRP have been working our way through the New York court system to have Happy’s right to liberty recognized, we’ve also been leading a grassroots advocacy campaign for her freedom. Both have been powered by the actions so many of you have taken in support of Happy’s release to a sanctuary. Whether by attending our rallies outside the Bronx Zoo, sending emails to elected officials and Wildlife Conservation Society leadership, or joining us at hearings, your support has helped move us closer to winning the fight for Happy’s freedom and shown the world how many people are in this fight with us.
Here are a few ways you can take action to help free Happy as we wait for a decision from New York’s highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, on whether they’ll hear her case.
Sign the petition calling for Happy’s release to a sanctuary
A few years before we began advocating for Happy, a compassionate individual who was troubled by Happy’s solitary confinement started a Change.org petition calling on the Bronx Zoo to send her to a sanctuary. Since we filed Happy’s habeas corpus petition in October of 2018, almost one million additional people have signed the petition, bringing the signature count to almost 1.4 million. To date, people from 192 different countries have signed.
Petitions and other forms of collective action are incredibly effective ways to bring about change. If you haven’t already signed the petition, please add your name today.
Complete action alerts urging the Bronx Zoo and Wildlife Conservation Society to release Happy to a sanctuary
Since beginning our fight for Happy’s freedom, we’ve repeatedly called on the Bronx Zoo to release Happy to a sanctuary, offering to drop our lawsuit were they to do so. Thank you to everyone who has joined us in these efforts by completing our action alerts to Jim Breheny, Executive Director of the Bronx Zoo, and Cristián Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the Bronx Zoo.
Over 10,000 people completed our first action alert to Jim Breheny. In response to the overwhelming number of people urging Happy’s release, Mr. Breheny emailed NhRP supporters who contacted him through the alert and tried to justify the zoo’s decision to continue to imprison Happy and deprive her of necessary companionship with other elephants. We took this opportunity to point out the reality of Happy’s imprisonment and how the Bronx Zoo’s narrative about Happy is incorrect.
Thousands of people have also contacted the Wildlife Conservation Society to ask that they release Happy. So far, the Wildlife Conservation Society has not responded to those who’ve contacted them through this action alert.
You can complete the action alerts for Jim Breheny and Cristián Samper by clicking here and here.
Watch our #FreeHappy virtual event to learn more about Happy, her case, and what we’ve done so far in the fight for her freedom
In June and August of 2019 we held our first rallies for Happy’s freedom in front of the Bronx Zoo. At both events, around 100 advocates joined us to be a collective voice and presence for Happy. We intended to hold rallies again in the spring of 2020, when Happy’s exhibit was to reopen to the public after being closed for the winter, but the COVID-19 pandemic required us to put those plans on hold.
We still wanted to rally for Happy’s freedom, albeit virtually, and provide people with a way to share Happy’s story online and advocate for her release to a sanctuary. On Nov. 18, 2020 we held our first ever #FreeHappy virtual event, which was livestreamed on YouTube and our social media accounts. During the event, NhRP staff provided updates on Happy’s case and campaign. Additionally, we showed the tremendous progress we’ve made together in the fight for her freedom and the many ways people have taken action for Happy.
We are grateful for everyone who participated in the event and the amazing corporate sponsors who helped make it happen.
If you missed the #FreeHappy virtual event, you can watch it here.
Tweet to #FreeHappy
Soon after our June 2019 rally for Happy, her plight went viral on Twitter. After learning about Happy and our advocacy on her behalf through media coverage of the rally, journalist and elephant activist Yashar Ali published a Twitter thread about Happy, which quickly gained almost 25,000 “likes” and almost 20,000 retweets. Numerous celebrities and influential people, including Kristin Davis, Whitney Cummings, Piers Morgan, and Sebastian Roche, tweeted in support of Happy’s release. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose district is adjacent to the zoo and whom Ali tagged in the thread along with other lawmakers, responded by saying her team would look into what they could do. We subsequently had a call with her staff about Happy and the urgent need to free her to a sanctuary.
Soon after, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who is an ex-officio trustee for the Wildlife Conservation Society, announced his support for Happy’s freedom and urged the Bronx Zoo to close its elephant exhibit and send Happy and Patty, the zoo’s other imprisoned elephant, to a sanctuary.
We saw firsthand the power that tweeting at elected officials could have. We then decided to encourage New York City-area supporters to tweet at the host of an “Ask the Mayor” radio segment, requesting that he ask New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio about his thoughts on Happy’s imprisonment. In October 2019, after weeks of consistent tweeting by NhRP supporters, Mayor Bill de Blasio commented on Happy’s plight, telling WNYC “something doesn’t feel right” about keeping Happy in the Bronx Zoo.
In June 2020 we held our first Twitter day of action to raise awareness about Happy’s plight and increase public pressure on the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society to send Happy to a sanctuary. We knew that the more more people tweeting to #FreeHappy at the same time, the greater the chance that the tweets for Happy’s freedom would be amplified and garner widespread attention and support.
On the day of the event, tens of thousands of #FreeHappy tweets were sent and retweeted. Celebrities and people from all over the world joined us in calling for the Bronx Zoo to send Happy to sanctuary. Happy’s story reached millions people on Twitter. If you would like to send a #FreeHappy tweet you can check out this blog for graphics and sample language.
Read our recently filed Motion to see how we incorporate grassroots advocacy and supportive comments from elected officials into our legal arguments asking the Court of Appeals to hear Happy’s case.
In the upcoming months we’ll have new actions you can take to help secure Happy’s release to a sanctuary. In the meantime, one thing you can do, in addition to completing the actions linked above, is to send a tweet to Cher asking that she help Happy. Cher recently helped in freeing an elephant named Kaavan from a zoo in Pakistan to a sanctuary in Cambodia.
Thank you for your ongoing support!