Elephant at centre of animal rights campaign dies in Philippine zoo

File photo : Mali the elephant receives food from a worker at the Manila Zoo on January 23, 2019.//AFP

Manila, Philippines – An elderly elephant has died in a Philippine zoo, an official said Wednesday, after a failed global campaign to relocate her to an animal sanctuary.

Mali had been a popular attraction at Manila Zoo, where animal rights activists say she was kept for decades in “solitary confinement” in a concrete enclosure. Before her death on Tuesday, the approximately 43-year-old elephant won the support of Catholic bishops, a global pop star and a Nobel laureate — all of whom pushed for her transfer on the grounds she had been mistreated.

“Mali was our prized possession and was the star attraction here at the Manila Zoo,” Manila City Mayor Honey Lacuna told a news conference at the facility. “It saddens me because she was part of our lives,” she…