Cher en route to rescuing Kavaan and seeing the elephant relocated to its new home. Image: Twitter via @just_me_dd
Don’t miss this on TV: Cher’s heroic rescue of ‘the world’s loneliest elephant’
Lone ranger: The documentary featuring pop icon Cher’s rescue mission of ‘the world’s loneliest elephant’ will air on television on 19 May.
Cher en route to rescuing Kavaan and seeing the elephant relocated to its new home. Image: Twitter via @just_me_dd
Last year, hit singer Cher made headlines when she took up the task of rescuing the 36-year-old elephant Kaavan that had been living in isolation and in deplorable conditions in an Islamabad zoo for more than eight years after his companion, Saheli, died in 2012.
CHER AND KAAVAN
After learning of Kaavan’s plight, Cher says she felt obligated to act. The iconic pop singer, now aged 74, says she was reminded by her Twitter statement “Stand and be counted or sit and be nothing” that she must stand up for a voiceless animal in the face of the cruelty it was being subjected to.
“I saw people being affected by it all over the world. People want a happy ending. People don’t want to see animals suffer. And I know people are suffering too, but this is a story that can brighten their lives,” Cher was quoted as saying in RollingStone.
USING HER VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS
The singer used her song Walls to draw attention to the plight of Kaavan, known as the World’s Loneliest Elephant, who was living in solitary confinement in a miserable city zoo in Pakistan. Through her own non-governmental organisation, Free the Wild, Cher worked conscientiously for a lengthy five-year period to secure Kaavan’s release from the Islamabad zoo.
After negotiating Kaavan’s release with local authorities, Cher travelled to Pakistan to be part of the rescue team that resettled Kaavan, to an elephant sanctuary in Cambodia, where he is now flourishing among the company of other elephants.
ALSO READ: First Kaavan, now Bua Noi: Cher fights for animals in captivity
CHER GETS COLD FEET
The hit singer says she was hesitant about travelling to Pakistan during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and at Thanksgiving, a holiday traditionally observed by spending time with family.
The pop icon-turned-animal activist reminded herself of her Twitter statement to regain focus and determination. Cher says she was compelled to see this mission through to completion and travelled to Pakistan over Thanksgiving as part of the rescue effort to rehouse the four-ton elephant to Cambodia.
“I was frightened, but then I thought, what do you want to do more? You made a promise, and you have to go. I didn’t see any other way to do it. I have a saying on my Twitter, ’Stand and be counted or sit and be nothing.’ And I wasn’t going to sit and be nothing,” she said.
WHERE AND WHEN TO WATCH ‘Cher and the Loneliest Elephant’
Viewers can watch the legendary Cher in action this month. The documentary Cher and the Loneliest Elephant will air on the Smithsonian Channel on 19 May.
ALSO READ : Roaring Success: Qatar Airways brings captive lions back home to SA
