Benito is quickly settling into his new home at a wildlife preserve in southern Mexico after leaving a park in Ciudad Juárez, where his living conditions led to a public outcry.
“Welcome Benito! We’re very happy you are here,” Frank Carlos Camacho, head of Africam Safari, said at a press conference at the wildlife facility early Tuesday morning shortly after the giraffe arrived.
Camacho accompanied Benito on the more than 1,200-mile journey to the state of Puebla, posting details including video updates on social media for tens of thousands of followers who care about the giraffe.
The more than 30-hour road trip began in Ciudad Juárez where a large crowd gathered Sunday night to bid the giraffe farewell. There was a festive atmosphere, and a woman in the crowd yelled, “Larga y feliz vida Benito?”, wishing him a long and happy life.
“This is an unforgettable date,” Ana Feliz of Salvemos of Benito said. “We are overjoyed.”
For months, the “Save Benito” organization fought to relocate the giraffe using public pressure, a petition drive and a social media campaign that gained international attention.
Since Benito’s arrival last May, Parque Central has been the center of controversy and the site of protests. Animal advocates said he did not have proper shelter or veterinary care.
Benito was transported from Ciudad Juárez in a climate-controlled crate fitted with two cameras to monitor him on the trip and a microphone so handlers could speak to him along the way when he appeared nervous. Mexico’s national guard escorted the giraffe across multiple states.
At his new home in the state of Puebla, Benito has a lot more space to roam and a proper diet, including acacia tree leaves. The climate is warmer, and he’ll get proper veterinary care from wildlife experts.
It’s in sharp contrast to the park in Juárez, where he had a flimsy shelter from winter’s freezing cold and little shade in the blistering summer.
Benito lived a solitary life for nearly a year but now will join a herd. Handlers will slowly introduce him to seven other giraffes at the wildlife park in the next few days. Three are females, and he’s expected to find a mate, reproduce and help preserve the vulnerable species.
The relocation was only possible because people banded together on both sides of the border, said animal advocate El Pasoan Laura Sanchez, who was among those working to move Benito from the park.
“I think that’s a great lesson for all of us, the more of us who are united in helping these animals, obviously they don’t have a voice, so we have to be their voice,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez traveled from El Paso to Puebla and planned to visit Benito at the preserve Wednesday.
Animal rights advocates are celebrating their hard-fought victory. There is still much work to do to ensure Mexico’s laws protecting both domestic and wild animals are enforced, Felix of Salvemos Benito in Juarez said.
“We can fight. We can continue. We can achieve.”
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