Bronx Zoo blasts claim that Happy the elephant is a person

Happy the elephant shouldn’t plan on packing her trunks just yet.

Animal-rights activists, appearing in Bronx court Monday, argued that the Bronx Zoo pachyderm is an “autonomous being” whose “liberty is being violated” by her cramped lonely quarters, and they want her moved to a sanctuary.+

But lawyers for the zoo shot back that Happy is, well, happy where she is — and that the notion of granting her “legal personhood” to ensure she is transferred somewhere else is ludicrous.

“What would make you think that Happy, who has been in this [zoo] environment for 40 years, would be able to survive [elsewhere]?” Judge Alison Tuitt asked lawyers for the plaintiff, the NonHuman Rights Project.

Steven Wise, who is helping to rep the group, said affidavits from its experts indicate that Happy “would be welcomed” by other elephants at a sanctuary.

But the zoo argued that Happy, age 48, is receiving loving care from its workers — and that to move her now would cause her harm.

“If NHRP were truly concerned about the health or well-being of Happy, they would not be exploiting her to keep their agenda of extending legal personhood to animals in the news,” the zoo said in a statement.

Nonhuman Rights previously fought a losing legal battle to gain personhood for two upstate chimpanzees named Tommy and Kiko.

Judge Tuitt told both sides in the pachyderm predicament to return to court next month for another hearing on remaining motions in the case.

Happy’s twisted tale began when she was taken from her herd, likely in Thailand, in the early 1970s as a calf and sold for $800 to a safari company in California, according to Nonhuman Rights.

In 1977, Happy was relocated to the Bronx Zoo along with another elephant she’d been with, Grumpy.

The pair was eventually put in with two other female elephants, Maxine and Patty — who didn’t take to Grumpy, mortally wounding the poor tusker around 2002.

The zoo then removed Happy, fearing a similar end for her if it didn’t, and paired her up with a female elephant named Sammie.

In 2005, Happy gained fame as the first elephant to “‘pass’ the mirror self-recognition test, considered to be an indicator of self-awareness,” NonHuman said.

But sadly, Sammie was euthanized a year later as she suffered from kidney failure, and Happy has been living alone ever since.

“Elephants, by their nature, are pack herd animals,” said a 72-year-old activist from Staten Island, who only gave her first name, Barbara, outside court Monday.

“They want to be with their mommies and aunties. They roam in the wild for typically up to 35 miles. … They are not sedentary, confined to small places.”

The zoo declined to comment after court. The animal-rights group sued the zoo over Happy last year.

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