An elephant dubbed the world's "saddest" has died at Manila Zoo in the Philippines. She was over 40 years old.
Mali lived almost all of her life alone in a pen at the zoo. Animal rights activists had called for her to be homed in better conditions, with Sir Paul McCartney once asking officials to transfer her to an elephant sanctuary.
Manila mayor Honey Lacuna announced Mali's death, the BBC reports.
She had been at the zoo since 1981, when the Sri Lankan government gifted her to the Philippines' first lady Imelda Marcos. Since 1990, Mali had been the zoo's only elephant.
An autopsy found cancer in some of her organs.
In a statement, PETA said: "Because of indifference and greed, Mali the elephant died the same way she had lived for nearly 50 years: alone in a concrete pen at the Manila Zoo.
"The Manila Zoo and the city of Manila sentenced Mali to decades of solitary confinement."
The city's mayor saw it differently.
"She might seem alone, but she had us beside her," Lacuna said.
"She was the face that greeted everyone who visited Manila Zoo. She is a part of our lives."
She told reporters that Manila would ask the Sri Lankan government to donate another elephant.
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