Update: Happy the Elephant is Not a Person

Outside/In

NHPR

Society & Culture, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2022

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Anybody who supports the show RIGHT NOW, during our June 2020 Fund Drive, will be entered to win a $500 Airbnb gift card, and will receive an adorable limited-edition Outside/In axolotl sticker.Click here to donate to Outside/In right now. A few weeks ago, we teamed up with the Civics 101 podcast to bring you the story of Happy, an Asian elephant living in the Bronx Zoo. Lawyers had petitioned the New York State Court of Appeals for a writ of Habeas Corpus; a legal maneuver that could have freed Happy and set a new precedent for animal rights. But in a ruling out this week, the court has decided: Happy isn’t going anywhere. In this quick update to our previous episode (listen here if you haven’t already) Nate and Hannah debrief on the 5-2 split decision, and what it means for the future of animal rights. Featuring: Maneesha Deckha SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. Subscribe to our FREE newsletter. Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook LINKS Read more about this week’s ruling, and what it may mean for animal rights, in this article from Slate. CREDITS Hosts: Nate Hegyi and Hannah McCarthy Reported and produced by: Nate Hegyi Mixer: Taylor Quimby Editing by Taylor Quimby Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer Music for this episode by Fabien Tell, Bill Ferngren, Sarah the Illstrumentalist, and Alexandra Woodward Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Alrighty, alrighty, alrighty, alrighty. Let's bust this thing out.
0:06.0	Hey, this is Nate from Outside In. We're a podcast all about the environment.
0:12.5	And I'm Hannah McCarthy, co-host of Civics 101. We talk all about the government.
0:16.6	And a few weeks ago, we made a special crossover episode about an elephant named Happy.
0:22.4	We're now about to see our Asian Elephant Happy.
0:26.2	Now, you may remember a group of lawyers had petitioned courts New York State for a writ
0:33.0	of habeas corpus. It was a legal maneuver that, if granted, would mean happy as entitled
0:37.7	to rights previously reserved for human beings. And she'd be freed from the Bronx Zoo and
0:42.4	then placed into an animal sanctuary in Tennessee.
0:45.0	If you haven't listened to the episode, you should go check it out now. But we promised
0:49.6	you an update on her legal fight after the New York State Court of Appeals issued their
0:54.4	final decision.
0:55.9	So here it is. The judges have handed down the ruling and drum roll, please, or maybe
1:02.0	I should do like elephant stomping drum roll.
1:07.9	Happy lost.
1:11.0	That's right. But this case was always a long shot. So I was actually a little surprised
1:15.0	to see that it was a five to decision, which means the court was actually split.
1:22.4	So let's dive first into the majority opinion. The judges essentially said that even though
1:26.8	happy is a highly intelligent animal, I mean, we're talking smarter than a two-year-old
1:30.6	toddler. Bottom line, only human beings are eligible for a writ of habeas corpus.
1:35.8	They also took issue with how happy lawyers compared the plate of an elephant with that
1:40.2	of enslaved people. Right. And like, just as a refresher, this did not work out well
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NHPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NHPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.