{"id":233824,"date":"2021-04-23T02:13:43","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T23:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/cher-on-how-she-helped-save-worlds-loneliest-elephant\/"},"modified":"2021-04-23T02:13:43","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T23:13:43","slug":"cher-on-how-she-helped-save-worlds-loneliest-elephant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/cher-on-how-she-helped-save-worlds-loneliest-elephant\/","title":{"rendered":"#Cher on how she helped save ‘World’s Loneliest Elephant’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Cher on how she helped save ‘World’s Loneliest Elephant’<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Cher\u2019s four-year journey to help save an abused elephant from a Pakistani zoo is documented in \u201cCher & The Loneliest Elephant\u201d now on Paramount+ and premiering May 19 on Smithsonian Channel.<\/p>\n

The special follows the iconic singer\/actress\u2019 efforts to rescue Kaavan, a 37-year-old elephant kept chained to a wall, alone, in an Islamabad zoo in squalid conditions. His mate, Saheli, died in 2012 from gangrene caused by the chains on her legs, causing Kaavan to rock back and forth from stress and anxiety.<\/p>\n

Kaavan\u2019s plight was brought to Cher\u2019s attention in 2016 through the efforts of animal rights advocate Anika Sleem, who launched a #FreeKaavan social media<\/a> campaign that quickly gained traction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been trying to save an elephant here I really loved with absolutely no luck,\u201d Cher told The Post. \u201cFade out, fade in, some years later\u2026I have to thank the kids \u2014 I\u2019m sure not all of them are kids, but I just call them that \u2014 on my Twitter site because I would never have done this without them bothering me. It was #FreeKaavan every time I was on [the site] and I kept thinking, \u2018OK, if I don\u2019t answer them they\u2019ll leave me alone.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Kaavan
Cher gets acquainted with Kaavan after flying to Pakistan to meet him in \u201cCher & The Loneliest Elephant.\u201d<\/figcaption>
Zoobs Ansari<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBut they didn\u2019t, thank God,\u201d she said. \u201cMy first thought was, \u2018I\u2019m not going to be able to do anything [to help Kaavan]; I\u2019m just an entertainer and he\u2019s in Islamabad and there\u2019s pandemic.\u2019 I felt hopeless, but then I remembered a friend I met in Qatar, [musician\/activist] Bob Geldof\u2019s manager, Mark Cowne, and just cold-called him. I said something really stupid like, \u2018You might not remember me but we rode in a car together and I know you\u2019ve saved elephants in Africa. Can you help me?\u2019 I want to save an elephant in Pakistan.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of days later he was there in Islamabad,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s a big guy and he went up to [zoo officials] and said, \u2018Take [Kaavan\u2019s] shackles off, put some corrugated metal on top of this bulls\u2013t thing he\u2019s living in, it\u2019s not big enough for him, and put some water in that little pool,\u2019 which they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cher,
Cher, meanwhile, flew with a small security detail to meet Kaavan in Islamabad, then journeyed on to Cambodia to welcome him at the sanctuary.<\/figcaption>
Zoobs Ansari<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cowne contacted animal rights group Four Paws International. Led by experienced veterinarian Dr. Amir Khalil, they were tasked with transporting Kaavan from Islamabad to a 30,000-acre animal sanctuary in Cambodia. It was risky, since Kaavan was in Musth, a periodic condition in which male elephants\u2019 testosterone rises dramatically, causing aggressive behavior. It also necessitated a specially constructed container Kaavan had to be trained to enter so he could make the seven-hour air journey to Cambodia.<\/p>\n

Cher, meanwhile, flew with a small security detail to meet Kaavan in Islamabad, then journeyed on to Cambodia to welcome him at the sanctuary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to make a decision whether I was going to go to Islamabad in a pandemic and not knowing what the people there were going to think of me, or even if they knew who I was,\u201d Cher said. \u201cI was hoping they didn\u2019t know, because then they would know I\u2019m this chick from America who was naked for almost her entire life and that wouldn\u2019t have gone down so well. But I met a lot of nice people there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kaavan
Kaavan in front of the container, not yet finished, that will transport him to a Cambodian animal sanctuary.<\/figcaption>
SMITHSONIAN<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As viewers will see, Cher and Kaavan bonded over a piece of watermelon, with Dr. Khalil close by. \u201cI felt the connection,\u201d she said. \u201cWe hung out and sang a real bad [rendition of] \u2018My Way,\u2019 which is not a song I think I would ever sing in my life. Elephants adore music; I don\u2019t think people have any idea how the emotions of human beings and elephants are the same. They have compassion and anger and they can reason \u2014 they do better with human qualities than we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Mark first unchained Kaavan he didn\u2019t know that he could move\u2026they\u2019re still getting rid of the burns on his ankles [from the shackles]\u2026and putting all kinds of medicine on them. Can you imagine chaining your dog to something for so long and not letting him move for no app<\/a>arent reason?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaavan\u2019s trip<\/a> to Cambodia was uneventful, and he will now transition (in three stages) into living in his natural habitat, roaming free and surrounded by other elephants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched him when we first got [to Cambodia]. It was night, but it wasn\u2019t completely dark, and I was standing behind the crate when Kavaan had to back out of it,\u201d Cher said. \u201cI watched him walk around the enclosure and saw his back \u2014 he was just curious and was looking around, there was not one shake of his head or his body. He wasn\u2019t freaking out or anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there are girl [elephants] there,\u201d she said. \u201c[Kaavan\u2019s keeper] Derek said he was having some communication with the females and I said, \u2018Oh my God \u2014 a new house and chicks at the same time!\u2019 You saw him with one of the girls holding trunks. The tips of their trunks are much more sensitive than fingertips.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cher
Cher has co-founded an international charity called Free The Wild to help rescue other animals in distress.<\/figcaption>
SMITHSONIAN<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cher said she will eventually return to visit Kaavan. She co-founded an international charity, Free The Wild, with Cowne and his wife, Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne, to rescue other animals in dire straits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to Thailand and then I\u2019m going to stop in Cambodia to see [Kaavan], but not now because it\u2019s too hard,\u201d she said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Cher on how she helped save ‘World’s Loneliest Elephant’” Cher\u2019s four-year journey to help save an abused elephant from a Pakistani zoo is documented in \u201cCher & The Loneliest Elephant\u201d now on Paramount+ and premiering May 19 on Smithsonian Channel. The special follows the iconic singer\/actress\u2019 efforts to rescue Kaavan, a 37-year-old elephant kept chained…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/cher-and-the-loneliest-elephant-07.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[77519,103011,71638,71258,77397,77018,17320,1373],"class_list":["post-233824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cambodia","tag-4-22-21","tag-animal-rescue","tag-celebrity-social-media","tag-cher","tag-elephants","tag-pakistan","tag-what-to-watch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}