For more than seven years he was alone in the zoo that came after being rescued from a circus. He depressed himself, hit the walls and was very thin. That is why the activists who denounced their situation called her Ely, the “saddest elephant in the world.”
Your luck is about to change.
The Supreme Court of Mexico on Wednesday, to grant an unprecedented amparo to this female elephant African, which has lived in the capital zoo of San Juan de Aragón for 13 years, so that their caregivers improve their habitat and ensure their health.
It is not the first time that animal defenders get with its pressure that an animal receives a better treatment —As passed with the giraffe Benito in 2024, which was transferred from a zoo with extreme climatic conditions in Ciudad Juárez to a conservation park in central Mexico -,, But it is the first case that the highest Mexican judicial court gives an animal a protection.
“Ely was in very bad conditions. I think it was not long in dying “He told The Associated Press Diana Valencia, director and founder of the local association opening cages and opening minds, which began the battle to protect Ely in 2016 with other animal defenders.
1/6 | Photos: The Benito Giraffe and its 40 -hour trip to reach its new habitat in Mexico. After pressures exercised by environmental groups, the Benito Giraffe is transferred from the State Zoological Parque Central in Mexico, where it remained alone and exposed to cold improper temperatures of its natural habitat. – Christian Chavez
They ask for the release of the Elefanta, which is between 43 and 45, or its transfer to a sanctuary where it can be with more specimens. Although the zoo denies it, the activists denounce that it suffers depression and diseases product of its captivity. “They need a lot of space, they need nature, they need family, they need their pack,” he added.
Valencia periodically visits Ely for eight years, despite her she suffered an accident and requires a wheelchair and a cane to mobilize.
As explained, the alarms lit when the elephant died in April 2016 MaggieEly habitat companion. She was sacrificed due to ailments in her bones. Valencia says that That caused Ely and depression and progressive physical deterioration. He hit the walls, began to lose weight and even ate his feces.
Now the Supreme Court of Mexico forces Zoological authorities to keep Ely “In constant improvement of your health and physical condition” Under regular veterinarians and specialists, as well as to make “necessary adjustments in the space where the elephant develops”, according to the sentence project.
The resolution was taken with the vote of three of the four members that make up the Second Chamber of the Maximum Court – it was not approached in the Plenary of the Court – and confirmed an amparo that has already received the elephant in its favor last year in a court of lower rank. A first amparo request was discarded in 2021 by a federal judge.
According to specialists, Wednesday’s decision would lay a precedent in Mexico for the recognition of animals as beings they feel and are creditors of rightswhat could promote other legal processes in favor of animals in captivity, or initiatives to suspend bullfights and cockfights in Mexico City.
Already last month the Supreme Court had taken steps in favor of the protection of animals, when it determined that the capital laws that sanctioned abuse and cruelty towards animals such as dogs, cats and other species were constitutional.
Valencia acknowledges that in recent years “there have been improvements” in the space where Ely lives, but the activist says that the changes were “forced by the pressure” of animal defenders, the press and lawyer actions.
The capital authorities made an extension of about 3,500 meters from the area where the elephant lives, and in 2023 they brought him a first companion, Gipsy. In March last year, another arrived, Annie, but is kept isolated because he is in the process of adaptation.
The veterinarian Gabriela Uribe Acosta, director of the Wildlife Conservation Center of San Juan de Aragón in which Ely lives, points out that the zoo can fully comply with the court’s request.
Assured the AP that The elephant, 2.30 meters high and three tons of weight, is in a “very enriched atmosphere”, in an area of about 7,300 meters in which there is a wide pond, sand beds, food dispensers, trunks and trees.
Regarding the care it receives, Uribe Acosta indicates that six people take care of their diet and cleaning, and eat oat fodder and alfalfa, fruits and vegetables.
When he arrived at the zoo in 2012, after spending several years in a circus, Ely presented a ailment in her right back leg that limited her to walk, as well as nutritional deficiencies due to poor fodder and bread diet.
Now, the director of the Zoo emphasizes, also has a main doctor, three people who follow up their health and two veterinarians who evaluate their behavior with the support of an external specialist.
As soon as its ailments, the veterinarian indicates that it has a problem of rotation in the right rear leg, which is treated with medical treatments and laser ray therapies, and that it has also suffered from hyperkeratosis in the skin.
But he says he is already in good condition, and denied that he is depressed for his captivity.
“It has remained stable,” says Uribe Acosta, and has improved his social behaviors thanks to the presence of his two companions. It moves more and has new vocalizations.
“Mexico is taking a significant step with a precedent of this nature and that I think this will mark a before and after,” The lawyer Sergio Méndez Silva, constitutional litigation coordinator of the local humanitarian organization for justice.
But Valencia does not feel satisfied. He will continue to fight so that the three elephant can be taken to a sanctuary in Brazil or the United States. “I cannot be satisfied because an elephant cannot live in captivity; They are mentally damaged. It is one of the animals that suffer most captivity, ”he said.