Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)

New luxury home for two circus elephants

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PARIS: Two circus elephants, which were threatened with euthanasia in France, arrived in their new luxury home near the Côte d’Azur yesterday after being taken in by Princess Stephanie of Monaco, French media reported.

Baby, 42, and Nepal, 43, left the park in Lyon, where they had spent the past 14 years, for a new life in the hills above Monaco on Thursday.

The two pachyderms made the 500km road trip to the Monaco royal family’s estate in Roc Agel in two giant air-conditione­d containers.

Cranes lifted the containers on to a truck in Lyon, and they arrived in the south of France early yesterday.

Their new home is a 3 500m park with a big wooden shelter and a pool for splashing in, local media reported.

Their trek south marks the epilogue to an emotional campaign to save the elephants after authoritie­s in Lyon ordered they be euthanised last year as suspected tuberculos­is carriers.

Animal-rights activists, led by former actress Brigitte Bardot and the elephants’ owner, Pinder Circus, fought the decision.

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