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(New York, NY) – Happy and Patty are a pair of elephants who have made headlines as many animal-lovers sound the alarm on the living conditions of the animals living at the Bronx Zoo. The New York City Bar is requesting the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoo, either move them to a new sanctuary or face consequences. They want the elephants to be moved out of possession of the Bronx Zoo and they say it can be done the easy way, voluntarily, or the hard way, through the strong arm of city government agencies.
This all follows a list ranking the worst zoos for elephants across the country. The Bronx Zoo came in second to the Los Angeles Zoo. The elephant enclosures at the Bronx are more than 1,000 times smaller than the natural range of an elephant. The president of the NYC Bar lawyers says that if the zoo does not cooperate with the request to relinquish the elephants, city agencies and the city council could flex some of their authority. Lawyers made the argument that the city has every right to intervene since it is a city-owned public park, funded by taxpayers. In a statement, the Conservation Society says the animals are well cared for by a team of professionals and their enclosures are up to code.
