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EDMONTON — For years, activists have been trying to get Lucy, the lone elephant at the Edmonton Valley Zoo, relocated to warmer climes, claiming she’s unwell and lonely — but the latest legal effort by animal rights groups to force the courts to review the conditions of her confinement has failed.

This case is a complicated one, said Peter Sankoff, a University of Alberta legal professor and expert in animal rights law, and is ripe for an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, because it raises the issue of how humans are supposed to stick up for animals if courts don’t give them the chance to do so.

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“What the applicants are saying here is that Lucy’s interests are very much impacted, but no one’s allowed to go to court on her behalf,” Sankoff said. “That’s what the issue really is in this case and that’s the issue I think the Supreme Court needs to consider.”

Lucy, who came to the zoo in May 1977 and is 42 years old, has attracted high-profile advocates over the years, including Bob Barker, the former host of The Price is Right and Edmonton Oilers enforcer Georges Laraque; each offered to give the city $100,000 if Lucy was moved. Even the Jackass star Steve-O called for her to be moved to a sanctuary when he was in Edmonton for a comedy show in 2011.