A 52-year-old elephant was euthanized on Wednesday night at the Elephant Sanctuary Brazil (SEB) in the Mato Grosso region after she showed "no interest in getting up again".

"It is with sadness that we announce that our beloved Lady passed away peacefully on Wednesday night, May 15. She was humanely euthanized after lying down and showing no interest in getting up again. There is no record of her birth, but we believe she was approximately 52 years old," the organization announced on social media on Thursday.

The sanctuary, which houses only female elephants, said that part of the animal's routine was "receiving painkillers three times a day".

"A team member was with her at 10:00 p.m. on Monday and she was standing next to the large, beautiful tree in the first enclosure of the Asian bull habitat; she used to lean her rear end against the trunk of the tree and sleep. At 6:00 a.m., she was found lying down in the second enclosure of the same habitat. We checked to make sure she was alive, but she was still and quiet and gave no indication that she wanted to do anything other than stay where she was," the center added.

Lady, who had lived on the site for four years after being rescued from a circus in 2013 and spending time at a zoo in Paraíba, suffered from osteomyelitis, a bone infection that causes severe pain and has no cure.

"Six months ago, when her most recent bout of inflammation appeared, it was clear that the fight was different. She had a little recovery when we started a homeopathic remedy; she was able to bend her elbows and lie down again. But that recovery was short-lived and it began to become clear that we might not see the recovery we were hoping for. Last week, we saw a bigger change and those things that made her Lady were slowly starting to disappear," the sanctuary lamented.

Despite having consulted "specialists from all over the world about her care and treatment", the solutions were always limited.

"The only reasons not to respect what Lady seemed to be telling us would be selfish. As difficult as it is to accept, we all knew that the problem would not go away. Even if she magically decided to get up, we would be in the same situation in a week, a month or possibly a few hours," it explained.

Now, the team plans for her "resting place" to be "outside the habitat fences, because Lady was always looking to see what was over the next hill, valley or clearing".

"We want to honor the part of her that wanted a life that did not contain her. Now, her body and her spirit know exactly that," they said.

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