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A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 15 June 2022
Bronx Zoo elephant named Happy isn't a person, court rules

By MICHAEL HILL live her life."
Associated Press "Her captivity is inherently
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Hap- unjust and inhumane. It is
py the elephant may be an affront to a civilized so-
intelligent and deserving of ciety, and every day she
compassion, but she can- remains a captive — a
not be considered a per- spectacle for humans —
son being illegally confined we, too, are diminished,"
to the Bronx Zoo, New York's Rivera wrote.
top court ruled Tuesday. The ruling from New York's
The 5-2 decision by the state highest court cannot be
Court of Appeals comes in appealed.
a closely watched case The Nonhuman Rights Proj-
that tested the boundaries ect has failed to prevail
of applying human rights to in similar cases, including
animals. those involving a chimpan-
The zoo and its supporters zee in upstate New York
warned that a win for ad- named Tommy.
vocates at the Nonhuman Steven Wise, the group's
Rights Project could open founder, said he was
the door to more legal ac- pleased it managed to per-
tions on behalf of animals, suade some of the judges.
including pets, farm ani- He noted that the group
mals and other species in has a similar case under-
zoos. way in California and more
The court's majority echoed planned in other states and
that point. Bronx Zoo elephant "Happy" strolls inside the zoo's Asia Habitat in New York on Oct. 2, 2018. other countries.
The decision written by Associated Press "We will take a really close
Chief Judge Janet DiFiore look at why we lost and
said that "while no one dis- proceeding, which is a way the use of service animals, complex elephant worthy we'll try to make sure that
putes that elephants are for people to challenge ille- and the enlistment of ani- of the right reserved in law that doesn't happen again
intelligent beings deserving gal confinement. Granting mals in other forms of work," for "a person." to the extent that we can,"
of proper care and com- that right to Happy to chal- read the decision. Two judges, Rowan Wilson he said.
passion," a writ of habeas lenge her confinement at a The Bronx Zoo argued Hap- and Jenny Rivera, wrote Happy was born in the wild
corpus is intended to pro- zoo "would have an enor- py is neither illegally impris- separate, sharply worded in Asia in the early 1970s,
tect the liberty of human mous destabilizing impact oned nor a person, but a dissents saying the fact captured and brought as
beings and does not apply on modern society," read well-cared-for elephant that Happy is an animal a 1-year-old to the United
to a nonhuman animal like the majority decision. "respected as the magnifi- does not prevent her from States. Happy arrived at
Happy. "Indeed, followed to its logi- cent creature she is." having legal rights. Rivera the Bronx Zoo in 1977 with
The decision affirms a lower cal conclusion, such a de- The advocates at the wrote that Happy is being fellow elephant Grumpy,
court decision and means termination would call into Nonhuman Rights Project held in "an environment who was fatally injured in
Happy will not be released question the very premises argued that Happy is an that is unnatural to her and a 2002 confrontation with
through a habeas corpus underlying pet ownership, autonomous, cognitively that does not allow her to two other elephants.q

Native children's remains to be moved from Army cemetery

died at a government-run and 1918, including famous ster, plan to make the trip
boarding school at the Car- Olympian Jim Thorpe. to Carlisle later this month.
lisle Barracks, with the chil- "If you survived this experi- Webster said her own fa-
dren's closest living relatives ence and were able to go ther ran away from a similar
poised to take custody. back home, you were a boarding school in Wiscon-
The disinterment process, stranger. You couldn't even sin when he was 12.
which began over the speak the language your "It was like a a prison camp,
weekend, is the fifth at Car- parents spoke," said Rae what they were putting
lisle since 2017. More than Skenandore, of the Oneida these little kids in," Webster
20 sets of Native remains Nation in Wisconsin. She is a said. "It's a part of our his-
were transferred to family relative of Paul Wheelock, tory that's really traumatic
members in earlier rounds. one of the children whose and still affects the com-
The children had lived at remains will be disinterred. munity today."
the Carlisle Indian Industrial The off-reservation govern- The children to be dis-
School, where thousands ment boarding schools — interred came from the
of Native children were Carlisle was the first, with Washoe, Catawba,
A headstone is seen at the cemetery of the U.S. Army's Carlisle taken from their families 24 more that followed — Umpqua, Ute, Oneida and
Barracks, Friday, June 10, 2022, in Carlisle, Pa. and forced to assimilate "ripped apart tribes and Aleut tribes. The sex and
Associated Press to white society as a mat- communities and families," approximate age of each
ter of U.S. policy — their said Skenandore, adding child will be verified, ac-
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM grounds of the U.S. Army hair cut and their cloth- she lost part of her own cul- cording to Renea Yates, di-
Associated Press War College. Now they're ing, language and culture ture and language as a re- rector of the Office of Army
CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) — For heading home. stripped. More than 10,000 sult. "I don't know if we can Cemeteries, with archeo-
more than a century they The Army began disinterr- children from more than ever forgive." logical and anthropologi-
were buried far from home, ing the remains of eight Na- 140 tribes passed through She and her mother, cal support from the U.S.
in a small cemetery on the tive American children who the school between 1879 83-year-old Loretta Web- Army Corps of Engineers.q