Update on Lonely Giraffe in Mexico!

Update (January 25, 2024): Ciudad Juárez officials have thankfully made the decision to move Benito to a facility in a more appropriate climate in Puebla, Mexico, where he’ll have the company of other giraffes. Thank you to everyone who spoke up in behalf of Benito! We expect that this new facility will be an improvement for him.

Original post:

PETA has learned that a 3-year-old giraffe named Benito was recently transported to Parque Central, a city-run park in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, from a zoo in Sinaloa, Mexico, where he was born and lived with his mother and another giraffe. He now exists alone in a half-acre, trash-strewn enclosure lacking grass, shade, and appropriate shelter in a region that experiences extreme weather conditions. According to reports, which does little to protect him from the sun’s scorching rays and the high summer temperatures. Winter months won’t provide him with any reprieve, as temperatures dip well below freezing and ice and snow are common there—conditions that giraffes aren’t equipped for and that pose injury risks to these long-legged animals.

Young male giraffes are very social and, in nature, join other males in bachelor groups when they’re around 1 to 2 years old. They have home ranges of between 8 and 50 miles and spend most of their days roaming, grazing, and socializing.