Help Us Reach 100,000 Signatures for Patty

Just two months ago, Species Unite’s petition calling for Patty, the last surviving elephant at the Bronx Zoo, to be transferred to a sanctuary surpassed 50,000 signatures. At the time, Craig Piper, Interim Executive Vice President for Zoos & Aquariums and Director of the Bronx Zoo, had gone on record saying that the zoo was considering making the humane decision to transfer Patty to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, where she could finally experience freedom and companionship after decades of isolation.

Species Unite delivered more than 54,000 signatures directly to Piper, urging the Bronx Zoo to follow through on that compassionate decision. But months have now passed, and there has been no progress. Our petition has gone unanswered, and Patty remains alone.

But the Species Unite community has not stayed silent.

In just two months, our campaign has nearly doubled, and we are now just shy of 100,000 signatures calling for Patty to be given the chance at a new life in sanctuary.

And while the Bronx Zoo continues to leave Patty waiting, another zoo has just made a more compassionate choice for their elephants.

The Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, recently announced that it will be ending its elephant exhibition program and sending its final three elephants, Alice, Ginny, and Kate, to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee by the end of 2027. The three aging elephants have spent 36 years living at the zoo, but they will soon have the opportunity to spend the rest of their lives together in a 3,000-acre sanctuary, surrounded by nature, with the freedom, space, and peace they have been denied for decades living in a small enclosure close to a busy highway.

This is the type of future Patty deserves.

Patty was stolen from the wild in India when she was just three years old and sold to the Bronx Zoo for $6,000. Over the course of her five decades in captivity, she has endured unimaginable loss. Her only calf, Astor, died before his second birthday, and in 2018, her longtime companion Maxine died of cancer, leaving Patty almost entirely alone.

Today, at 57 years old, Patty remains confined to the same small enclosure where she has been for decades, watched by visitors passing by on the zoo’s monorail. She has spent years without the close companionship that is so essential to elephants who naturally live in tightly bonded family herds and form lifelong relationships.

Happy never got the chance to leave the Bronx Zoo. Patty still can.

We need to make sure the Bronx Zoo knows that the public will not stop speaking out for Patty until she does.

When our petition reaches 100,000 signatures, Species Unite will return to the Bronx Zoo for a major public hand-in, bringing 100,000 voices directly to the institution that has the power to change Patty’s life.

This is already the biggest petition in Species Unite’s history, and we are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of love and support this community has shown for Patty. If you have not yet signed, please add your name and share this petition with everyone you can.

Help us reach 100,000 signatures and show the Bronx Zoo that Patty’s remaining years matter. She deserves the chance to live out her days with freedom, companionship, and dignity.