Happy is one of the star attractions at The BronxA district of New York City. Zoo. But a group of animal rights campaigners believe the 53-year old Asian elephant is not happy at all.

Happy has lived alone since 2006, in what reports call a "cramped and lonely enclosure". The Nonhuman Rights ProjectAn animal rights organisation that aims to have at least some nonhuman animals declared persons. The nonprofit organisation has also filed habeas corpus petitions on behalf of chimpanzees, but they were rejected.  (NhRP) compares this to solitary confinementThe UN considers solitary confinement of over 15 days a form of torture..

A petition calling for Happy's freedom has 1,412,725 signatures. And Happy has become the first elephant to be the subject of a court case, where the NhRP will argue that she deserves to be legally considered a personTo possess personhood is to hold certain rights and legal protections against cruel and unfair treatment..

Happy would not be the first nonhuman to gain rights. In 2007, the Balearic Islands passed the first law granting great apes personhood. In 2014, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that animals have the right to "live in a healthy and clean atmosphere" and "not be beaten". Last year, the UK government introduced legislation to formally recognise animals as sentientAble to perceive or feel things. beings. And this February, Ecuador ruled in favour of a chorongo monkeyAlso known as the common woolly monkey, they live in packs of up to 70 individuals.'s rights.

This represents a seismic shiftA very sudden or dramatic change.. The way we treat nonhuman animals would be criminal if done to humans. We keep everything from pet goldfish to Bengal tigers in captivity, often for our own entertainment. We breed cows for dairy, kill them for meat then turn their skin into leather. Our cruelty has been justified by the idea that animals do not think or feel as we do.

But many have observed human-like behaviour in animals. Charles Darwin described an orangutan named Jenny as "precisely like a naughty child". Animals have even been punished like humans. In 1916, a Tennessee magistrate had an elephant called Big Mary hanged for trampling her trainer to death. He made the other circus elephants watch.

The more scientists discover about animals, the more like us they seem to be. Happy has recognised herself in a mirror. Pigs can play computer games. Octopuses can use tools. Hippos can identify each other's voices. Monkeys can trade. Crows can solve puzzles as well as a five-year-old. And one border collie has been taught to recognise the names of 1,022 different toys.

The most intelligent animals have complex societies, methods of communication and emotions. As leading primatologistA scientist who specialises in the study of primates. Jane Goodall says: "You cannot share your life with a dog or a cat, and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities and minds and feelings." Why should they not be people?

Others disagree. If personhood is based on intelligence, does that mean we should take it away from humans with impaired cognitionThe mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and understanding. ?

To be a person means to take responsibility. There is still scant evidence that animals can do this. As Lawyer Kenneth Manning says: "the capabilities of a chimpanzee do not translate to [its] capacity to be held legally accountable for [its] actions." If we want animals to have better lives, many argue, we should simply treat them better.

Yes: Humanity has brought enormous distress to animals, sometimes for no better reason than our own entertainment. Granting animals human rights is the fastest way to atone for our history of cruelty.

No: Animals might be more emotional and intelligent than we once thought. But they still fall far short of human capabilities. To simply make them equal is to paper over a world of differences.

Or... Rights, sentience, personhood: these are all terms created by humans, for humans. Instead of copying and pasting them onto animals, we should create new concepts more relevant to animal life.