By a vote of 5-2, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that Happy the elephant cannot be treated as a legal person for purposes of habeas corpus. The ruling means that Happy, who was taken from the wild more than forty years ago, will continue to be confined solitarily at the Bronx Zoo rather than being rehomed to an accredited elephant sanctuary. The habeas petition was brought on Happy’s behalf by the Nonhuman Rights Project, and the New York court was the highest in an English-speaking jurisdiction to consider an animal personhood case.