Sussex-based wildlife charity calls for an end to keeping elephants in British zoos
A wildlife charity based in Sussex is calling for an end to keeping elephants in British zoos.
Horsham-based group Born Free says the animals living in captivity die young and can be physically and psychologically damaged.
The group has released an animation telling the story of a young elephant whose untimely death, 40 years ago, inspired the creation of the charity.
It has been narrated by its Founder Patron, actor and campaigner, Dame Joanna Lumley, voiced by Kenyan actor Foi Wambui and created by award-winning animator Andrew D Morgan.
‘Enough Is Enough’ tells the story of Pole Pole, an elephant gifted by the Kenyan government of the time to London Zoo four decades ago.
Born Free's animation
The animation highlights when she was taken away from her mother, her herd and her Kenyan homeland, and forced to live, on display in a zoo environment.
She was 17 when she died. Born Free says had she continued living in the wild she would now be 57.
Born Free is asking the public to sign the Elephant Free UK petition which calls for the urgent, humane phasing-out of elephants in UK zoos.
Currently, there are 50 elephants being kept across 11 zoos in the UK.
The charity is urging the government to begin by banning any future attempts to breed elephants in captivity, and stopping the importation of additional elephants, from the wild or from captivity, into the UK.
Will Travers OBE, Born Free’s Co-Founder and Executive President added: “I remember seeing Pole Pole in London Zoo. She was on her own, her skin dry and cracked, her tusks broken, she paced relentlessly.
"She was a worn-out shadow of the young elephant she should have been. It was heartbreaking – all the more so for my parents, Virginia and Bill, who had come to know her as a friend during the making of the film ‘An Elephant Called Slowly’ in the late 1960’s.
"Together, we resolved to do what we could, but even though we found a reserve in Southern Africa that was willing to take her, the zoo refused. And so started a chain of events that lead to her tragic death in 1983.
"Her demise was the beginning of my life’s work. Together with my Born Free colleagues, and supported by millions of people around the world, today we are the voice for the voiceless, delivering better lives for individual animals, compassionate conservation for species under threat, and opportunities for communities co-exist with wildlife in the wild, where it belongs.”
Howletts Wild Animal Park near Canterbury has 13 elephants - the largest group in the UK. It is working to move them back into a protected area in Kenya as part of a rewilding project.
Amos Courage, Projects Director for the Aspinall Foundation, which runs Howletts Wild Animal Park, said he found the animation by Born Free "very moving".
He said: “Elephants belong in the wild. You don’t need to educate children with elephants in captivity. They can watch wildlife documentaries.”
Dame Joanna Lumley said: “As Born Free’s Founder Patron I am truly honoured to be part of this poignant and important animation, to lend my voice to it, and to the vital campaign to phase-out the keeping of elephants in zoos in the UK.
"I have been fortunate enough to have travelled the world, and on my journeys, I’ve had the privilege of observing these magnificent creatures in the wild – where they belong. This is what Born Free is striving for."
Andy Hall from the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums
Andy Hall from the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums says elephant enclosures have been made larger over the years. Noah's Ark Zoo Farm in Clevedon has a 20 acre enclosure for elephants with their own woodland.
Mr Hall said: “I think it’s actually really telling that this campaign centres on a story from nearly half a century ago. The simple fact is that zoos and safari parks are a world of difference away from forty years ago. Nowadays they are compassionate havens for elephants. They are conservation powerhouses.”
He added by having herds of elephants living in zoos, they can carry out conservation work. In Chester Zoo, there is a pioneering vaccine into an elephant disease.
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