Patty

Patty is a wild-born Asian elephant who was captured in India when she was three years old and imported to the United States in 1973 with several other young elephants. The Bronx Zoo purchased Patty for $6,000. For over half a century Patty has been confined to the same small, barren enclosure at the zoo.

Patty has been exploited for profit by the Bronx Zoo for over 50 years. She was forced into the zoo’s captive elephant breeding program. In 1981, Patty gave birth to a male calf fathered by Groucho, a male elephant who was captured from the wild and purchased by the Bronx Zoo at the same time as Patty. The Bronx Zoo named her baby Astor. Astor died before his second birthday from the elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus.⁣ According to an archived New York Times article from the 1980s, Patty became pregnant again after Astor’s death, but it is unknown if she miscarried or had a stillbirth as nothing was reported besides the pregnancy announcement.

In 2002, Patty and another elephant fatally attacked an elephant named Grumpy. Grumpy was a part of another group of wild-born elephant calves imported to the US around the same time as Patty (all were named after the dwarves in Snow White). This awful event wasn’t surprising given the “zoochosis” elephants can develop from being confined in zoos where they have no space and no autonomy. ⁣⁣

From 1973 until 2018, Patty lived with her close companion Maxine, who also was a part of the Bronx Zoo’s 1973 elephant purchase. Maxine was euthanized in November 2018. Since Maxine’s death, Patty has been confined alone without the companionship of other elephants and she is separated from Happy, the only other elephant at the zoo.

Patty’s wholly unnatural existence at the Bronx Zoo is a monotonous life full of constant suffering, defined by an inability to make meaningful choices. She is confined to a small enclosure that contains a divided one-acre outdoor yard, barren corrals, and an industrial holding facility. In the winter months, when it’s too cold for her to be outside, she is housed in an industrial cement structure lined with windowless, barred cages. Because Patty and Happy are separated, each elephant only has access to the outside yard on a rotational basis.

The Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the zoo, still have an opportunity to allow Patty to flourish and regain her dignity: by sending her to an accredited elephant sanctuary. After over half a century in captivity, Patty deserves to live in a peaceful environment with orders of magnitude of greater space, one that allows her the freedom to roam on soft grass, wallow in mud and natural bodies of water, and spend time with other elephants if she so desires.