Should we still have elephants in zoos? Born Free launches campaign for 'elephant free UK' on tragic anniversary

A new animation chronicling the inner monologue of one of the UK's most famous captive elephants in the lead up to her tragic death has kick-started a push to humanely phase out elephants in UK zoos.

Born Free's new campaign is calling on the public to take action by signing its new petition for an "Elephant Free UK". Tuesday (17 October) marks the 40th anniversary of Pole Pole's death - London Zoo's resident elephant whose captivity prompted the start of the charity. There are still an estimated 50 elephants being held in zoos around the UK, the wildlife advocacy charity says, including two housed on their own - with elephants preferring to live in groups in the wild.

The new video is called Enough is Enough, and Born Free says it is aimed at highlighting the suffering of elephant in zoos. Created by award-winning animator Andrew D Morgan, it is narrated by the organisation’s founder patron Dame Joanna Lumley, with Pole Pole voiced by Kenyan actor and influencer, Foi Wambui.

In 1969, Pole Pole the elephant starred in the film An Elephant Called Slowly. Subsequently gifted by the Kenyan government of the day to London Zoo, she was eventually euthanised in the zoo’s elephant house, resulting in public outcry. Enough Is Enough retells Pole Pole’s story - capturing her inner monologue - as originally imagined by Born Free founder Bill Travers - as she is taken from her mother, her herd and her Kenyan homeland, and made to live out her life in a small, enclosed display.

Pole Pole was just 17 when she died. Had she continued living in the wild, Born Free said she would now be 57, likely roaming the wild plains of Kenya as the matriarch of her family, with calves of her own. The charity claims little has changed in the four decades since her death, with its petition calling for the urgent, humane phasing-out of elephants in UK zoos. They are asking the government to begin by banning the breeding of elephants in captivity, and by ending the import of elephants - from the wild or captivity - into the UK.

Dame Joanna Lumley said: “As Born Free’s founder patron I am truly honoured to be part of this poignant and important animation, to lend my voice to it, and to the vital campaign to phase-out the keeping of elephants in zoos in the UK.

"I have been fortunate enough to have travelled the world, and on my journeys, I’ve had the privilege of observing these magnificent creatures in the wild – where they belong," she said. "This is what Born Free is striving for."

Pole Pole’s tragic story was the charity's history and heritage, Dame Lumley continued, "but she also guides our vision for the future, a future where, one day, no wild animal will be forced to live in captivity".

Born Free co-founder Will Travers said he remembered seeing Pole Pole in London Zoo. "She was on her own, her skin dry and cracked, her tusks broken, she paced relentlessly. She was a worn-out shadow of the young elephant she should have been."

It had been especially heartbreaking for his parents, Dame Virginia McKenna and the late Bill Travers, he said, who had come to know her as a friend during the making of the film An Elephant Called Slowly. "Together, we resolved to do what we could, but even though we found a reserve in Southern Africa that was willing to take her, the zoo refused."

Born Free’s captivity research officer, Chris Lewis, added: “Wild elephants live in large herds, range over hundreds, sometimes thousands of square kilometres of natural habitat for which they have evolved over millennia. Wild individuals can live into their seventies.

"By contrast, captive individuals continue to suffer reduced lifespans, high infant mortality, poor health, inadequate social opportunities, and enclosures thousands of times smaller than their wild range," he said. In 2010, concerns for the plight of elephants in UK zoos prompted the government to set up the Elephant Working Group, which provided its 10-year report to government months ago, yet Mr Lewis said the report and its findings remained hidden from public view.

"We don’t need more studies, reports, and recommendations for incremental improvements to elephant enclosures. We need an end to the keeping of elephants in zoos. The UK government can set a strong international precedent by announcing plans to phase-out captive elephants.”