In November of 2018, Maxine died, seeming to leave Patty and Happy each alone in the exhibit.
According to the zoo, “all of the subsequent weekly tests we have done with Patty have showed no presence of the TB bacterium … Our two other elephants, Happy and Maxine, are tested every three months and have not tested positive for TB.” In Defense of Animals and other animal advocates have criticized Animal Planet for sanitizing the elephants’ suffering in captivity. In 2017, Patty was diagnosed with tuberculosis, as discussed in a May 2018 episode of Animal Planet’s The Zoo about her ongoing medical treatment. He insists the zoo is prioritizing Happy’s best interests and has questioned the capacity of elephant sanctuaries to provide long-term care to elephants like Happy compared to what zoos can provide. The public never sees this.”īreheny acknowledges Happy “does not share the same physical space with our two other elephants because they do not get along, she is in tactile and auditory contact with them.” It is unclear what Breheny means by tactile contact. According to The New York Post, “Happy spends most of her time indoors in a large holding facility lined with elephant cages, which are about twice the length of the animals’ bodies. Shortly after, the zoo announced it would end its captive elephant program once one or more of the elephants had died: “If two die, officials say it would be inhumane to sustain an exhibit with a single elephant.”įrom 2006 to the present, to protect Happy from the other elephants and with assurances from zoo director Jim Breheny that Happy is sufficiently happy where she is, “ The Bronx Zoo’s Loneliest Elephant” has lived alone, without a true elephant companion, in a rotating portion of the 1.15-acre exhibit. That same year, the Bronx Zoo euthanized Sammie after she suffered kidney failure. In 2005, Happy became the first elephant to “pass” the mirror self-recognition test, considered to be an indicator of self-awareness. The zoo separated Happy from Patty and Maxine and introduced a younger female Asian elephant named Sammie (also known as Maya, Sammi, Sami, Samuel R II) to be Happy’s companion. In 2002, the Bronx Zoo euthanized Grumpy after she was attacked by two other elephants held in captivity there. That’s why I put all the physical tricks on her: the hind-leg stand, the sit-up.” Happy runs more, she moves more, she’s rougher. Then you can figure what trick to put on each elephant. Of Happy’s demeanor and role in these purportedly educational shows, the elephants’ “low-key, no nonsense trainer” said: “Happy is a more physical elephant than anything I’ve ever seen … Most people, when they train elephants, cats, horses or whatever, usually turn them loose and just watch them for hours. There, in addition to displaying the elephants, the zoo, through the 1980s, compelled them to give rides, participate in tug-of-war contests, and perform tricks, as publicized by The New York Times (“ Fordham’s Rams Defeat Zoo’s Elephant in Bronx,” “ Two-Day Party in Celebration of Elephants at Bronx Zoo”) and The New Yorker (“ Elephant Extravaganza”). Happy and Grumpy were sent to the Bronx Zoo (operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society, formerly the New York Zoological Society) to be part of the newly created Wild Asia Monorail exhibit (then called the Bengali Express Monorail). In 1977, the proprietors relocated all six elephants to circuses and zoos across the US. That same year, Sleepy died, and the corporation relocated Happy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Doc, Dopey, and Bashful to the still operational The Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Florida. in Laguna Hills, California, which named the calves after the dwarves in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
“Captured as a baby, probably from Thailand, in the early 1970s, along with six other calves, possibly from the same herd,” according to The New York Times, she was imported to the US and sold for $800 to the now defunct Lion Country Safari, Inc. Happy is a female Asian elephant who was born in the wild in 1971.
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