Elephant will remain in Dallas Zoo

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Jenny the lonely elephant, whose pending move from the Dallas Zoo to Mexico had angered activists, isn’t going anywhere after all.

The Dallas Zoo announced Wednesday that the 9,000-pound pachyderm will remain at her home of 22 years and will eventually get a new companion.

The decision to keep the elephant in Dallas ‘serves Jenny’s best interests,’ said Greg Hudson, the zoo’s executive director.

Dallas Zoo officials had planned to ship Jenny to a wildlife park in Mexico after her companion died in May. African elephants become unhappy when left alone.

But activists ripped the plan, saying Jenny is nervous and fears cars and would be miserable at the drive-through park in Mexico where the Dallas Zoo planned to send her. Protests were held in front of the Dallas Zoo last month.

Dallas Zoo officials said that they have now expedited plans for a new elephant habitat, which would include a new companion for Jenny.

Critics of the planned move had argued that Jenny would be much better off at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn. That 2,700-acre facility is a haven for troubled elephants and is home to 17 of the animals.

(Last year, the Los Angeles Zoo’s female African elephant, Ruby, left behind her solitary off-exhibit barn, and controversy over her fate, for retirement at a bucolic Northern California sanctuary.)