LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A South African court is hearing an animal rights case this week, arguing that three elephants at the Johannesburg City Zoo are depressed. Kate Bartlett reports.
KATE BARTLETT: Lammie, Mopane and Ramadiba are the last elephants held in a zoo anywhere in South Africa, and now a court case is challenging whether they should remain there at all. Their enclosure is only slightly bigger than a soccer field.
I'm walking through Joburg Zoo, and here I'm coming up to the elephant. I just see this one guy. He looks kind of listless. Not much shade for them, really.
The lawsuit has been brought by a chief of the Indigenous Khoi people and several animal welfare groups.
DAVID BILCHITZ: Elephants in the wild would walk up to 30 kilometers a day, maybe even more. Here we've got three animals flung together who have to spend all their time together.
BARTLETT: David Bilchitz is a board member at Animal Law Reform South Africa, one of the groups bringing the case.
BILCHITZ: They sort of move slowly. They sway from side to side. And all of these behaviors demonstrate a strong degree of psychological distress, frustration, depression and boredom.
BARTLETT: But Jenny Moodley, a spokeswoman for Johannesburg Zoo, argues the elephants are well cared for and its staff, quote, "remain committed to caring for and providing for the elephants."
Some visitors to the zoo, like Stefan Oosthuizen (ph), said they would be sad to see the elephants go.
STEFAN OOSTHUIZEN: There's so many people in Johannesburg that don't have the means or the funds to go to a private game reserve or travel all the way to Kruger or whatever to see them.
BARTLETT: But others, like visiting American veterinary student Chris Lopez (ph), aren't so sure.
CHRIS LOPEZ: I feel like they kind of look a little sad. Like, they don't really have a lot of enrichment here.
BARTLETT: A judge will later rule on whether the animals should be removed from the zoo and rehomed in a conservation area.
Kate Bartlett, NPR News, Johannesburg. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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