The fate of a teenage zoo elephant in Pakistan was tragic — and a symbol of much more

KARACHI – Noor Jehan, the African bush elephant, should have been in her prime. She was just a teenager, about 17. But a mysterious incident left her painfully dragging about on her two front legs. The zoo neglected to help her until animal rights activists raised the alarm on social media. Then, in mid-April, she fell into a concrete pool in her dusty enclosure. She had to be winched out with a crane and could no longer stand independently. Zookeepers laid Noor Jehan on a mound of sand beneath the only tree in her enclosure.

"We are all absolutely heartbroken," said , cofounder of the , which dispatched volunteers and local vets to bolster Noor Jehan's care, overseen by the Austrian-based animal charity, . "We are trying to do our best urged the elephant to eat stalks of sugar cane. "Good girl," he crooned, "You can do it."