Could Anne the Elephant Help Save her Wild Relatives?
Last week the plight of Britain’s last circus elephant – Anne – and her despicable treatment by her handler caused a public outrage, provoking such a strong reaction that within a short space of team she was released from the circus and has since taken up residence in Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire. This just goes to show what a special connection people have with elephants, as well as what can be achieved if we care strongly enough and put our minds to it. Longleat Safari Park and the Daily Mail have since launched a campaign to raise £1million to develop a purpose built sanctuary for her, and potentially other circus elephants still performing in Europe that could be released in the future. This has made us wonder what a difference that amount could make if it could be multiplied by 100 for wild Asian elephants: Anne could be responsible for saving her entire species from extinction!
No animal should go through what Anne has gone through, and we are pleased that Longleat Safari Park has offered the best possible solution for her. Ideally there would be no elephants in captivity at all, as their requirements can never be adequately met. However, with roughly one third of all the world’s Asian elephants in captivity, and having played such a strong traditional and cultural role across Asia, conservationists cannot overlook this fact and their plight. Elephant Family has historically invested in improving their welfare, predominantly for humane reasons, but also where there is even a slight chance that doing so may prevent further elephants being taken from the wild. Nevertheless, improving the welfare conditions of captive elephants currently has little or no impact on the conservation of their relatives in the wild, and this is unlikely to change at least in the near future.
To invest £1million in improving the living conditions of even a handful of captive elephants therefore seems disproportionate to the difference this amount could make if it were instead invested in the conservation of wild elephants. Last year, for example, the Indian government announced an ambitious plan to secure the equivalent of approximately £80million to save elephants in India; a vast amount at first glance. However, put another way, this could work out to be little more than £3,000 per elephant; surely a small price to pay.
While hoping that Longleat Safari Park can allow Anne to live out her days free of persecution and in relative comfort, we think that £1million is a lot to ask of the public and that Longleat should do more to invest in wild species conservation. For that reason we cannot go so far as to actually endorse the campaign to raise that amount. Of course, we are under no illusion that such an amount would otherwise be available for wild elephants; a fallacy that is routinely made in such welfare versus wild conservation debates. Instead it is up to all of us to ensure that such amounts can be raised many times over for Anne’s wild relatives. And if she can act as ambassador for them, capturing the public’s imagination and galvanising them into supporting Asian elephant conservation, then so much the better!
written by Dan Bucknell on 06th April 11
