Ab Fab actress Joanna Lumley spearheads Horsham-based international charity Born Free campaign to save elephants

It has released a new animation narrated by Ab Fab actress Joanna Lumley, founder patron of Born Free, and voiced by Kenyan actor Foi Wambui.

The film – ‘Enough Is Enough’ – tells the tale of a young elephant whose tragic true story and untimely death, 40 years ago today, inspired the creation of the Born Free charity.

In 1969, Pole Pole the elephant starred in the film An Elephant Called Slowly with Dame Virginia McKenna and her late husband Bill Travers. The elephant was gifted by the Kenyan government of the day to London Zoo but was sadly destroyed in the zoo’s elephant house, resulting in a huge public outcry.

‘Enough Is Enough’ retells Pole Pole’s story to highlight the continued unsuitability of captivity for elephants. The animation captures Pole Pole’s inner monologue, originally imagined by Born Free founder, Bill Travers, in the 1987 book Beyond the Bars, as she is torn from her mother, her herd and her Kenyan homeland, and forced to live on display in a tiny, artificial zoo environment.

Pole Pole’s story is a tale from four decades ago. But, as ‘Enough Is Enough’ highlights, little has changed. Elephants in zoos are still dying young, are still physically and psychologically damaged, and are still being denied the opportunity to live their lives in the complex societal groups they experience in their wild habitats.

Born Free is asking the public to watch the film and join them to help bring the keeping of elephants in zoos to an end by signing a petition, which can be found here ELEPHANT-FREE UK (bornfree.org.uk).This calls for the urgent humane phasing-out of elephants in UK zoos.

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. This is what Born Free is striving for. ‘Enough Is Enough’ captures the essence of this incredible organisation – Pole Pole’s tragic story is at the very heart of Born Free and why we were founded nearly 40 years ago.”

Born Free co-founder Will Travers said: “I remember 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.

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"It was heartbreaking – all the more so for my parents, Virginia and Bill, who had come to know her as a friend during the making of the film ‘An Elephant Called Slowly’ in the late 1960s.”

It started a chain of events that led to Pole Pole’s tragic death. “Her demise was the beginning of my life’s work,” said Will, “… delivering better lives for individual animals, compassionate conservation for species under threat, and opportunities for communities co-exist with wildlife in the wild, where it belongs.”