“World’s Saddest Elephant”, Flavia, Dies After Spending 43 Years Of Loneliness In Captivity

Termed as the ‘world’s saddest elephant’ by animal rights activists, Indian elephant Flavia’s life turned into misery after being separated from her herd at the mere age of three. For the next 43 years of her life, she was held captive at Spain’s Cordoba Zoo, with loneliness as her only companion.

If this bit of news isn’t heartbreaking enough, strengthen your heart because the next part might leave you in tears. On March 1, 2019, Flavia, who has been a part of multiple campaigns against keeping elephants behind bars, passed away at the zoo, alone.

According to The Local, the elephant who had been living in solitary confinement was suffering from severe depression. Her health was deteriorating with time and she had been losing a lot of weight lately. However, on the 1st of this month, Flavia was euthanized after she collapsed in her enclosure.

The zoo authorities were unable to get her back on her feet once more. She was 47 years of age.

Speaking about the same in a press conference, Amparo Pernichi, the councillor in charge of Environmental issues at Cordoba City Hall, said,

😢 Ayer amanecimos con la triste noticia del fallecimiento de nuestra querida elefanta Flavia 🐘
Con este audiovisual rendimos homenaje a ella y a su familia más cercana: los trabajadores y trabajadoras públicas del Zoo de #CórdobaEsp#HastaSiempreFlaviahttps://t.co/voOvCHMXQc

— IU Córdoba Ciudad🔻 (@iucordobaciudad) March 2, 2019

“Her death is a tremendous blow in general for the zoo family, especially for Fran and Javi who had been her carers in the last moments, and also for Silvia, who took care of her previously.”

“During the last six months, Flavia’s physical condition had deteriorated, but especially so in the last two weeks”.

The animal rights party Pacma was working with the people at the zoo to improve Flavia’s enclosure. They were also thinking of shifting the elephant to another safari park in Europe so that she could interact and live with other elephants. Sadly, both for Flavia and the party, that remained a dream.

The news of Flavia’s death and her extremely saddening story breaks our heart. Rest in peace, champ.