Pakistan to free lonely elephant Kaavan
ISLAMABAD: Music icon Cher marked “one of the greatest moments of my life” on Thursday after a Pakistani court ordered freedom for a lonely elephant named Kaavan, who had become the subject of a high-profile rights campaign backed by the US singer.
“We have just heard from Pakistan High Court [that] Kaavan is free,” Cher tweeted, adding a string of emojis and saying she felt “sick.”
“This is one of the greatest moments of my life,” the effusive singer continued.
The Islamabad High Court has ordered wildlife officials to consult with Sri Lanka to find Kaavan a “suitable sanctuary” within 30 days, tweeted the Friends of Islamabad Zoo, which described itself as a group of citizens concerned about animal welfare at the zoo.
Outrage over treatment of Kaavan, an Asian elephant originally from Sri Lanka, went global several years ago with a petition garnering over 200,000 signatures after it emerged he was being chained at the Islamabad Zoo in Pakistan’s leafy capital.
Zoo officials later said this was no longer the case, and that he just needed a new mate after his previous partner died in 2012. But experts have told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) previously that without a better habitat his future was bleak, even if a longpromised new mate finally arrives.
His behaviour — including signs of distress such as bobbing his head repeatedly — demonstrates “a kind of mental illness,” Safwan Shahab Ahmad of the Pakistan Wildlife Foundation told AFP in 2016.