Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is a world away from Malibu but not too far away for generous local diva Cher. She rushed in to save a captive elephant and found him a new home. The goddess of pop led the effort to move 35-year-old Kaavan from a Pakistani zoo to a Cambodian sanctuary.
Kaavan once killed a zookeeper and was called the loneliest elephant in the world.
The move will cap an effort that went on for years.
Now, the pop star and the pachyderm will venture out to Cambodia.
He spent 27 years in chains and now he is on to his new life.
Cher co-founded Free and Wild, a wildlife protective charity.
The details of Cher’s travel regarding the saved elephant is being kept hush-hush because a documentary is being filmed at the same time.
Cher has stated that she “cannot wait to sing to him on his way to Cambodia.”
The veterinarian treating Kaavan has rescued more than 100 zoo animals from countries like Lebanon and Syria.
The total cost of the rescue of the elephant is reported to be in the mid six figures and he will be flying on a Russian cargo lifter in what Cher called “a very huge dog crate.”
Because of the pandemic, the party traveling with the elephant will be “in its own bubble” and in a remote location.
The elephant will be in a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary where three female elephants roam in the jungle there and will keep him happy.
What can you say but Cher believes in the security of wildlife.