Aspinall takes Kim to task over jumbo frolic
KING of wildlife conservation Damian Aspinall went headtohead with an unlikely opponent yesterday when he rebuked reality TV queen Kim Kardashian.
The son of legendary zoo owner and gambling club host John Aspinall, who owns Howletts and Port Lympne wildlife parks in Kent, accused the ubiquitous socialite of ‘ animal cruelty’ for riding an elephant at a sanctuary in Bali.
‘No wild animal should ever be used like that for human entertainment. And elephants, like all wild animals, need to be able to live free without human interference,’ he tells me.
Aspinall openly disparaged the 38-year-old by re-posting a photo of her online in a gold bikini top and matching sarong sitting astride the endangered mammal.
‘People such as Kim Kardashian have vast audiences and really should be using that reach to educate rather than popularising abuse such as this,’ Aspinall said of the brunette, who has 137 million followers on Instagram and visited the elephants with her family.
Let’s hope Aspinall’s attack on the American mother-of-three does not cause any tension at home. His exgirlfriend, actress Donna Air, has revealed their 15-year-old daughter, Freya, is obsessed with the Kardashian family’s television show.
The clan includes Kim’s half-sisters top model Kendall Jenner and the world’s ‘youngest self-made billionaire’ Kylie Jenner.
Action For Elephants UK also criticised Kardashian, claiming that wild elephants don’t let humans ride them, so the elephant was probably subjected to cruel taming methods.
Kardashian defended her visit, saying: ‘We visited an elephant sanctuary that has rescued these elephants from Sumatra where they would have otherwise gone extinct. It is an organisation that is working to save these beautiful animals.
‘We did full research before going.’