By KATHY GANNON, Related Press
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Kaavan, dubbed the “world’s loneliest elephant” after languishing alone for years in a Pakistani zoo, was readied Sunday for his flight to a sanctuary in Cambodia and the much-needed firm of different elephants.
The mammoth job of getting him into an elephant-sized metallic field for transport took a number of hours, and was maybe probably the most essential step in rescuing him from the dire situations he is lived in for 35 years.
Had Kaavan been spooked and refused to enter the cage or bolted, his departure might have been delayed for months whereas the rescue group sought to revive calm and belief earlier than making an attempt once more, defined Martin Bauer, a spokesman for 4 Paws Worldwide. The worldwide animal welfare group has led the cost to save lots of Kaavan since 2016.
Iconic American singer and actress Cher additionally arrived in Islamabad final week, the end result of her longstanding efforts to boost consciousness about rescuing Kaavan from the zoo. Situations there have been so dangerous {that a} courtroom within the Pakistani capital ordered the zoo closed in August.
Dr. Amir Khalil, a veterinarian with 4 Paws who’s been treating Kaavan’s many wounds and illnesses over the previous three months, mentioned he was hopeful in regards to the subsequent chapter of the elephant’s life.
“Within the sanctuary in Cambodia … ready for him is three women, three Asian feminine elephants,” he mentioned. “Now Kaavan might need a brand new associate, and share a brand new life with a associate.”
Khalil described how on Sunday he slowly and gently cajoled Kaavan to stroll backwards right into a metal crate, as almost a dozen males fastidiously guided him inside utilizing chains round his tree-trunk sized legs.
Kaavan is about to go away aboard a Russian cargo airplane for the 25,000-acre sanctuary early Monday morning.
The plight of the male Asian elephant, who’s been alone because the loss of life of his associate Saheli in 2012, has captured worldwide consideration.
Cher’s animal welfare group Free the Wild has labored with 4 Paws and the American syndicated columnist and philanthropist, Eric Margolis, to relocate Kaavan — a mission that is price about $400,000. She’s additionally making a documentary movie in regards to the course of.
Kaavan was recognized earlier this 12 months as being dangerously obese, owing to his unsuitable weight loss plan of round 250 kilograms (550 kilos) of sugar cane every day.
With Khalil’s assist, Kaavan misplaced 1,000 kilos (450 kilograms) over the previous three months, and was all the way down to a slimmer, extra agile 9,000 kilos (over 4,000 kilograms) when he left the zoo Sunday.
Kaavan’s wounds are emotional in addition to bodily. He would spend his days throwing his head backward and forward, a stereotypical signal of boredom and distress in an elephant, Bauer mentioned, and one thing the 4 Paws group has been working to deal with.
The lack of his mate Saheli in 2012 took a toll on Kaavan’s psychological well being. Elephants are social animals that thrive on the corporate of different elephants, Bauer defined. For Kaavan, the final eight years have been akin to residing in quarantine — one thing the world has come to know all too nicely amid the coronavirus pandemic, he mentioned.
“I at all times examine it to us people now throughout the pandemic. We’re locked away for 14 days remoted and everyone knows how that feels,” Bauer mentioned.
Saheli developed a small an infection in her foot that went unattended and have become gangrenous. When she died, her lifeless physique lay for a number of days beside the heartsick Kaavan till zookeepers finally eliminated her.
For a lot of his time in Pakistan, Kaavan was stored chained in a small enclosure surrounded by a moat of water. The ground irritated his toes and toenails, that are badly broken and would require years of therapy in Cambodia, mentioned Bauer. He arrived in Pakistan as a present from Sri Lanka when he was solely a 12 months outdated.
4 Paws first got here to guage Kaavan’s scenario in 2016, mentioned Khalil, the veterinarian. The group returned in August following the zoo’s court-ordered closure, and the choice was made to resettle him.
The zoo as soon as housed 500 animals, however by August barely 30 had been nonetheless alive, and Kaavan’s situation had deteriorated.
“They at all times say it takes a village, however it took an entire nation to get Kaavan moved to Cambodia,” mentioned Bauer, who applauded Pakistan’s Wildlife Basis, which first sounded the alarm about Kaavan.
Whereas Kaavan is probably the most celebrated rescue on the zoo, Bauer mentioned 4 Paws has already relocated about 30 animals from there.
All that stay are a deer, a monkey and two retired dancing bears — Suzie and Bubaloo — whose tooth had all been eliminated by their earlier house owners to cease them from biting clients and the house owners. The bears will probably be relocated to Jordan in December with the help of the Princess Alia Basis, headed by the eldest daughter of the Jordan’s late King Hussein.
“Elephants are ambassadors from the jungle, they usually need to dwell like ambassadors,” Khalil mentioned.
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