The most important animal-rights case of the 21st century revolves around an unlikely subject.By Jill Lepore

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/happy-elephant-bronx-zoo-nhrp-lawsuit/620672/

NOVEMBER 16, 2021, 6 AM ETSHARE

About the author:Jill Leporeis a staff writer atThe New Yorkerand the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University. She is the author ofIf Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future.

The subjectof the most important animal-rights case of the 21st century was born in Thailand during the Vietnam War. Very soon after that, a tousle-haired baby, she became trapped in human history. She was captured, locked in a cage, trucked to the coast, and loaded onto a roaring 747 that soared across the Pacific until it made landfall in the United States. She spent her earliest years in Florida, not far from Disney World, before…