Cher’s four-year journey to help rescue an abused elephant from a Pakistani zoo is now recorded on Paramount + on May 19 in the “Cher and the Loneliest Elephant” on the Smithsonian Channel.
Particularly follows the iconic singer / actress’s efforts to save Kawan, a 37-year-old elephant chained to a wall in a zoo in Islamabad alone. Her partner Saheli died of gangrene in 2012 due to a chain in her legs, leaving Kavan recuperating from stress and anxiety.
Kavan’s plight was brought to Cher’s attention in 2016 through the efforts of animal rights advocate Anika Slime, who launched a #FreeKaavan social media campaign that quickly gained traction.
“I was trying to save an elephant here, which I really had absolutely no luck with,” Cher told The Post. “Faded out, faded out, after a few years … I have to thank the kids – I’m sure not all of them are children, but I just call them – on my Twitter site because I never bothered them.” Wouldn’t have done it without me. Whenever I went, it was #FreeKaavan [the site] And I kept thinking, ‘Well, if I didn’t answer them, they would leave me alone.’
“But they were not, thank God,” she said. “My first thought was, ‘I am not able to do anything [to help Kaavan]; I am just an entertainer and he is in Islamabad and there is an epidemic. ‘I was feeling disappointed, but then I remembered a friend I had met in Qatar, [musician/activist] Bob Geldof’s manager, Mark Cowney, and simply cold called him. I said something really stupid, ‘You can’t remember me but we rode in a car together and I know you have saved elephants in Africa. Can you help me I want to save an elephant in Pakistan. ‘
“A few days later she was in Islamabad,” he said. “He’s a big boy and he went up [zoo officials] And said, ‘take [Kaavan’s] Stop, put some corrugated metal on top of this bull — the thing he’s living in, it’s not too big for him, and put some water in that little pool, ‘which they did. “
Covey contacted animal rights group Four Paws International. Experienced Veterinarian Dr. Under the leadership of Amir Khalil, he was tasked to move Kavan from Islamabad to a 30,000-acre animal sanctuary in Cambodia. This was risky, as Kavan was in the limelight, a periodic condition in which testosterone of male elephants increases dramatically, leading to aggressive behavior. It also required a specially built container cavan to be trained to enter so that it could undertake a seven-hour air journey to Cambodia.
Meanwhile, Cher flew to Islamabad to meet Kawan with a small security detail, then traveled to Cambodia to welcome him to the sanctuary.
Cher said, “I had to decide if I was going to Islamabad in an epidemic and didn’t know what the people there were thinking about me, or even if they knew who I was.” , “. “I was hoping they wouldn’t know, because then they would know that I was this chick from America who was naked almost her whole life and wouldn’t have gone down so well. But I met a lot of good people there.” “
As viewers will see, Cher and Kavan are tied on a piece of watermelon, Drs. Near Khalil. “I felt the connection,” he said. “We hung out and sang a real bad [rendition of] ‘My Way’, which is not a song that I think I’ll ever sing in my life. Elephants love music; I do not think that people have any idea that the feelings of humans and elephants are the same. They have compassion and anger and can reason – they do better than human qualities as we do.
“When Mark first undressed Kawa he didn’t know he could move on … they’re still getting rid of the burns on his ankles [from the shackles]… and apply all kinds of medicines on them. Can you imagine your dog chasing something for so long and not letting it move for no apparent reason? “
Kawan’s journey in Cambodia was uneven, and he would now (in three stages) live in his natural habitat, roam free, and be surrounded by other elephants.
When we first met, I saw him [to Cambodia]. It was night, but it was not completely dark, and I was standing behind the crate when Kavan had to return it, ”Cher said. “I saw him walking around the fence and looked at his back – he was just curious and looking around, there was not a single shake of his head or his body. He was not outside or anything.
“And there are girls [elephants] There, ”he said. “[Kaavan’s keeper] Derek said that he was having some communication with the women and I said, ‘Oh my God – a new house and girls at the same time!’ You saw her with one of the girls wearing tights. The tips of their trunks are more sensitive than those of the fingers. “
Cher said that she would eventually return to Kavan on a visit. He established an international charity, Free the Wild, along with Covey and his wife, Gina Nelthorpe-Coin, to severely save other animals.
“I’m going to Thailand and then I’m going to stay in Cambodia [Kaavan], But not now because it’s so hard, “she said.
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