Critically ill elephant Noor Jehan died at Karachi Zoo three days ago, fighting with every remaining ounce of energy left in her system, meeting her end when her body couldn’t bear the weight of the pain anymore. Elephants in captivity usually die by the time they turn 40, a significantly lower life expectancy than those living in the wild. But Noor Jehan died at 17-she was still a baby by all reasonable counts and witnessed far too much pain in her short life with us. In recent years, two lions have died of asphyxiation in Pakistani zoos after their handlers recklessly used smoke to try and get them out of their dens. More than 30 animals have died at Peshawar Zoo since its inauguration in 2018, including a rare snow leopard. Countless other animals at Karachi Zoo are at risk of suffering a similar fate. Underfunded, understaffed and entirely incapable of providing the specialised veterinary care that animals in captivity require, Karachi Zoo should be shut down. Madhubala, the only healthy elephant remaining at the zoo must be moved to a species-appropriate place to give her the opportunity to have a better life, something that was never in the books for Noor Jehan. A quick stroll through a Pakistani zoo gives us all the ammunition we need to shut them down permanently-cages filled with garbage, a lack of a proper diet and abuse from zoo carers as well as visitors and often illegal backhand trade of exotic animals and birds that cannot possibly thrive in our climate. All eyes are on us right now-we must make use of the international pressure to compel authorities to consider shutting down zoos. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that public entertainment should never come at the cost of animal welfare especially since most people in Pakistan appear to have no respect for animals, particularly those appointed to take care of them. If Noor Jehan’s tragic death has proved anything, it is that a country such as ours does not deserve the luxury of a zoo-it’s high time we realise that. *