Cher & the Loneliest Elephant
DOCUMENTARY Smithsonian HD, 8pm
The story of how pop star Cher stepped in to save an Asian elephant being held captive and alone at a zoo in Pakistan.
How the US SINGER saved an Asian elephant from a lifetime in captivity
WHEN POP STAR CHER heard about the plight of an Asian elephant called Kaavan, who’d been chained and alone in a zoo in Pakistan for many years, she decided she had to help – and her mission made headline news worldwide.
Now, a new Smithsonian documentary, Cher & the Loneliest
Elephant, follows her fight to free Kaavan from captivity – from the moment she learned about the elephant’s plight via social media, to Kaavan’s first taste of freedom at a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia.
‘I saw a picture and it was so horrible. He was shackled and in this shed constantly, and I was really angry,’ says Cher in the film. ‘All the kids on my Twitter site started to inundate me with “Save Kaavan” and I thought, how am I going to do this? But I knew we had to get him out. I wanted to free him.’
Kaavan had been held captive at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad ever since he was a calf. Chains meant he was unable to walk the length of his tiny enclosure, let alone bathe in his dried-up pool. His only companion, Saheli, had died back in 2012.
Although he was still the zoo’s star attraction, Kaavan spent his days alone, rocking from side to side out of boredom, loneliness and frustration, which earned him the nickname ‘the dancing elephant’.
‘Elephants are so social, just like we are,’ says Cher. ‘We’re very much the same. They’re so familyorientated and they’re so emotional.’
Desperate to help, the 74-yearold singer enlisted the assistance of friends and launched a non-profit organisation for animal rights called Free the Wild.
CAMPAIGNING
Cher also began a relentless
Twitter campaign to persuade the government in Pakistan to release Kaavan and even composed a song about the elephant’s plight.
Eventually, a legal case was launched and, in May 2020, the Islamabad high court ruled that Kaavan must be freed and the entire zoo closed. A new home was quickly found for Kaavan in a vast wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia, and Cher flew out to Islamabad to help the veterinary team prepare him for the gruelling seven-hour flight.
‘To go and save an elephant, that was way beyond my job description,’ recalls Cher. ‘Then all of a sudden I was in Islamabad. I could see him from the distance. The first thing I noticed was, what’s he doing in this hellhole?’
Cher then flew ahead to Cambodia to greet Kaavan as he experienced his first taste of freedom. Since then, Kaavan has been enjoying the company of other elephants, while Cher has become determined to help more captive animals.
‘It’s so strange, I never thought we could do it,’ she says. ‘It was a wonderful trip, the whole thing was wonderful. It’s like a fairy-tale ending. And now I know I can do something like that, I’m going to continue.’