1) For decades, our Connecticut elephant clients Beulah, Karen, and Minnie have been imprisoned on the #CommerfordZoo property—pictured here—leaving it only to labor under threat of a bullhook at events across the Northeast like the #GoshenFair. #FreeTheCommerfordElephants
2) The @USDA has cited the #CommerfordZoo over 50 times for failing to adhere to the minimum standards required by the Animal Welfare Act, including failing to provide the elephants with adequate veterinary care. Photo of Minnie: @gigiglendinning
3) For the past decade, numerous area residents have tried to raise awareness of the poor conditions at the #CommerfordZoo and sought to prevent it from coming to their communities. @XWMARAX Photo of Karen: @gigiglendinning
4) Yelp reviews describe the elephants as “sedated,” “sick,” and “sad,” the facilities as “filthy” and a “stockyard of despair,” and the experience itself as “an abomination.” See nonhumanrights.org/blog/where-are… for why we are now more concerned than ever about the elephants’ well-being.
5) The #CommerfordZoo’s total lack of accountability for its unjust treatment of these self-aware, autonomous beings only underscores the need for recognition of their right to liberty and release to @PAWSARK2000 where they can begin to recover from the traumas they've endured.
Four new amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs have been submitted in support of the Nonhuman Rights Project’s landmark habeas corpus case demanding the right to bodily liberty of an elephant named Happy held alone in captivity in the Bronx Zoo. nonhumanrights.org/blog/new-brief…
The first brief is by a group of six expert habeas corpus practitioners and scholars, including four lawyers who worked on the Central Park Jogger case.
The second is by 14 philosophers with expertise in animal ethics, animal political theory, the philosophy of animal cognition and behavior, and the philosophy of biology.
Elephants are self-aware, autonomous beings. They empathize with others, cooperate to solve problems and make decisions, have extensive long-term memories, teach and learn from each other, use tools, engage in complex communication, possess distinct cultures, grieve the deaths of
their loved ones, and want and need to live freely, just as we do. We are inspired every day by elephants’ resilience at the same time as we are outraged by the human actions that have forced them to endure and try to heal from trauma after trauma, loss after loss, for centuries.
For the NhRP, appreciating elephants means recognizing and protecting their right to live freely.
Almost 50 years ago, a baby elephant was torn from her family in the wild, exported to the US, and sold for $4K to a family from NJ. They named her Mignon, French for "cute." In 1972 her life as an elephant ended, and her life as a source of entertainment began. A thread:
The Hammonds treated, and wanted Mignon to act, like a family pet rather than an elephant. She was walked on a leash, slept on a mattress in their home, and was house trained. She wasn’t even allowed to relieve herself in a natural way—she was taught to urinate into a bucket.
In the 70s, the Hammonds were far from alone in having sought to turn a nonhuman being into a money-making experiment. For example, many know the story of Nim Chimpsky (nonhumanrights.org/blog/my-old-fr…). "Cute" while they're young, they become more difficult to control as they grow older.
After almost a lifetime in captivity, 14 years of which she has been forced to live alone, 49-year-old Happy deserves to be freed from her imprisonment at the @BronxZoo and released to @ElephantsTN or @PAWSARK2000. #FreeHappy
At the @BronxZoo, which is managed by @TheWCS, Happy is confined alone, without the necessary companionship of other elephants, in a small enclosure that contains a one-acre outdoor yard, barren corrals, and an industrial holding facility. #FreeHappy
NhRP Development Director Mickey Suzuki's path to nonhuman #animalrights advocacy started with her parents, who taught her to treat all living beings with kindness and respect. They were the ones who instilled in her a love for nonhuman animals (1/4)
especially her dad who grew up on a small farm in Japan and always told stories of caring for his family's goats, horses, and a little chick who'd follow him around while he'd do his chores. Mickey was (and still is) always in awe of how animals gravitate toward her dad; (2/4)
the running joke in their family is that he is their Dr. Dolittle.
Growing up in Australia, Mickey was always surrounded by nature and native animals, so it was important to her parents to teach her from an early age how to share their home and surrounding spaces (3/4)
Today, fifty years after the first #EarthDay, we’d like to thank you for helping us build a more just world for all.
A world in which we refuse to allow fear—fear of “the other,” fear of the loss of the status quo, fear of change and uncertainty—sway how we treat other beings and make public policy.
A world in which we make decisions at all levels based on science, justice, and the interconnectedness of all life on earth.