The Dallas Zoo announced Wednesday that the distraught elephant Jenny was not moving to Mexico anymore, to the relief of the activists who were against the idea.

The zoo thought better and decided the 10,000-pound pachyderm would remain at her home of 22 years and would also get a new companion, which might help end her depression.

“We believe we have found a solution that benefits Jenny as well as the Dallas community,” the zoo’s executive director, Gregg Hudson, said Wednesday in a statement. “This plan serves Jenny’s best interests.”

Mr. Hudson first decided to send the elephant, who suffered from depression panic attacks, to the Africam Safari Park in Puebla, Mexico, after her companion, Keke, died of heart disease in the month of May.

As African elephants are very sensitive when it comes to their companions’ death, it was feared that Jenny’s health was endangered.

But Mr.Hudson’s good intentions were not well received by many, including local residents, animal-rights advocates, lawmakers and elephant experts. The critics said that the noisy zoo in Puebla might actually worsen Jenny’s state and trigger her rages. They requested that the elephant is sent to a 2,700-acre sanctuary for traumatized circus and zoo elephants in Tennessee. But this plan was not welcomed by Dallas Zoo officials and a national umbrella organization that accredits zoos in North America. The zoo officials argued that the Tennessee elephant sanctuary was not accredited by the zoo association, which meant that Jenny might not be provided with proper care.

But now Mr. Hudson came with a better plan, promising to speed up the construction of a new 15-acre habitat for large African mammals and also to find a new companion for Jenny.