French President Francois Hollande will not intervene in the case of two ailing zoo elephants whose death sentence led Brigitte Bardot to threaten to go into exile in Russia, his office said Wednesday, reports France 24.
The two elephants named Baby and Nepal face being put down because they have been diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) and deemed a threat to the health of other animals and visitors to the zoo in the eastern city of Lyon.
Gilbert Edelstein, the head of the Pinder circus who donated the two pachyderms to the Parc de la Tete d'Or in Lyon, had sought the "supreme intervention" of Hollande in a letter.
"I appeal to your wisdom as this terrible decision is not justified," Edelstein wrote. He claimed the diagnosis of TB was disputed.
But in a response to Edelstein's letter, Hollande's office wrote that "it is not up to the government to intervene in a judicial process already under way," referring to an appeal by the circus owner against a municipal order.
Read more of this report from France 24.