A judge in rural Orleans County, New York, located about 380 miles from the Bronx Zoo, said at a hearing Friday that the best venue for a legal battle over the release of Happy, an Asian elephant living alone at the zoo, is back on the elephant’s home turf.

The Nonhuman Rights Project, led by attorney Steven Wise, took the effort to free Happy to Orleans County, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, because the organization felt that a recent Fourth Department ruling that extended legal personhood to a vandalized auto dealership may help their case.