Do you know what relationship there is between the children of Cadaqués and ZooXXI?
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In February 2008, l Escola Caritat Serinyana de Cadaqués organized an outing with her students to the Barcelona Zoo. On this visit, and while I was still a veterinary student at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, I was able to accompany them.
Fate meant that in a totally casual way, we were there when they proceeded to sedate Alice, they sedated her with some darts that we did not see fired, but we did see them stuck in the animal, petrified in a tiny enclosure. We could see Susi's reaction, her nervousness, restlessness, anxiety and frustration. We could see how she tried unsuccessfully to snatch the darts that had been shot at her. How hesitant she was going towards the dirty water and backing away before touching her.
The situation we saw was sad and shocking, but it was even worse. Over the next few days, the students of our School flooded us with newspaper clippings. Alice was dead. The issue was discussed at the school, and it was decided not to repeat this excursion. This decision had repercussions in the press, as you can see here.
Eventually, a new move appeared: Free Susi ! which was born when an animal rights association noticed the obvious signs of depression that Susi showed since she was alone in her small enclosure. Remember that African elephants live in freedom in groups of between 20 and 50 individuals, which are an animal species in which very strong social ties have been described, which perform funeral rites and watch over their dead.
At that moment, I contacted Susi! directly with the Libera platform ! and with our photographs we were able to give the small push that the project needed at that time.
The ZooXXI Project has managed to carry out the video-documentary "Susi - An elephant in the room" in which our School appears.
Free Susi! ran into EAZA and Barcelona City Council. The goal of releasing the elephant Susi could not be met, she was not allowed to be transferred to a sanctuary, but this gave way to a new and larger project: The XXI Zoo<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. (Read Susi's story from FAADA here or read the story directly from the hands of Zoo XXI here).
El ZooXXI Project considers that closing a zoo would be losing the opportunity to transform it. ZooXXI wants to transform facilities where animals are collected into a space where injured, abandoned or commissioned animals can be recovered.
In recent days we have been aware of, and witnessed through social networks the success of the transfer of the elephant Mara.
Mara lived in the Ecoparque in Buenos Aires and has been successfully transferred to the Brazil Elephant Sanctuary . Since she arrived at the sanctuary, she no longer shows the stereotypes she showed (head swing) and in a few days she has started living with one of the other elephants resident in the sanctuary. Mara has successfully started her new life, and everyone needs to know that she has made friends with the other elephants right away, which was not possible between Susi and the other elephants that brought her "to keep her company".