The Bronx Zoo has been rated one of the worst 5 zoo's in America by the "In Defense of Animals" (IDA), an international animal protection organization.
One of their main reasons for this was the cruel treatment of "Happy" an elephant that became famous for being one of the first animals to prove she was self-aware"
The public truly does not know the condition of Happy today but by all accounts from the reporting done in 2012 by the NY Post and others.
Happy spends the majority of her time indoors in solitary confinement in a tiny, unnatural exhibit with no regular access to a larger outdoor exhibit and is forced to endure frigid New York winters- deprived of social bonds which are critical to elephant welfare. As zoo officials themselves have admitted- it would be inhumane to sustain an exhibit with a single elephant.
It is time for Mayor de Blasio to have The Bronx Zoo release a report on the condition of Happy and also have The Bronx Zoo give access to a reporter from any local paper or Dominick Mezzapesa owner of Wildlifeplanet.net so either can write an unvarnished article about Happy, her health and her present day living conditions.
New York City praises itself as being one of the greatest cities in the world and it's shameful that for the past few years The Bronx Zoo consistently rates in the top five as the worst zoo's in the United States.
The silence and secrecy coming from The Bronx Zoo makes it NYC's Guantanamo Bay of zoos.
