We
previously blogged about an Endangered Species Act (ESA)
lawsuit which pitted an animal rights activist against the
Buttonwood Park Zoo (owned and operated by the City of New Bedford,
Massachusetts). The zoo's two elephants, Emily and Ruth,
approximately 55 and 61 years old, respectively, have spent the
greater part of their lives at Buttonwood Park. In 2017, longtime
zoo patron Joyce Rowley, an animal rights activist who runs Friends
of Ruth & Emily, an organization "dedicated to retiring
Asian elephants Ruth and Emily from Buttonwood Park Zoo,"
brought a lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court against the zoo.
Rowley claimed that the zoo was committing an illegal
"take" of the elephants when it failed to provide them
with, among other things, adequate veterinary care and
socialization, including a failure to protect one of the elephants
from its more aggressive elephant companion. Her requested relief
included confiscation of the elephants and relocating them to
