Global pop sensation Cher has outlined how a poignant social media campaign resulted in her helping to save an elephant once dubbed the ‘loneliest’ in the world, who suffered for decades while being kept in captivity.
For almost 20 years, Kaavan, a four-ton Asian elephant, was kept chained up in Pakistan, living in terrible conditions and being trained to beg for money after being prodded.
Not only did Kaavan’s health falter, but his only companion died from neglect, meaning that he was left entirely on his own.
A social media campaign was launched calling for his freedom, which caught the eye of Believe singer Cher, whose eventual connection with Kaavan is shown in upcoming documentary Cher & The Loneliest Elephant.
The 74-year-old explained that while she ‘never actually intended’ to become involved in the campaign, the frequent messages she received about it changed her mind.
‘I just got swept up in it because the kids on my site, on my Twitter feed, started sending me these pictures and it was all “free Kaavan, free Kaavan”,’ she told PA news agency.
‘And I looked at the pictures and they were terrible but I thought, “I can’t do anything”, so I didn’t answer them and thought eventually they’ll just stop. But they didn’t and so I started to get involved.’
In 2017, a charity co-founded by Cher called Free The Wild was launched, with the aim of stopping ‘the suffering of wild animals in captivity and ultimately find a way to release them into sanctuaries or better equipped zoos’.
That same year, the musician released a song called Walls in aid of the organisation.
In May 2020, a court in Pakistan ordered for Kaavan to be freed, with Free The Wild collaborating with an organisation called Four Paws and vet Dr Amir Khalil to find him a home at a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia.
A few months later in November, Cher embarked on a trip to help settle Kaavan into his new home.
‘It’s not the first time I’ve actually done something like this but it’s all been done with human beings,’ Cher said.
‘So it is really hard, because people now send me pictures and videos all the time, it’s really hard and Free The Wild, we’re working on a bunch of animals right now, but you don’t get them quickly.’
Cher explained that with each case, ‘you have to start on all of them at one time and hope that you’ll be able to talk people into letting them go to a sanctuary’.
Cher & The Loneliest Elephant airs on the The Smithsonian Channel on Thursday April 22 at 8pm.
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