With you by our side, our mission continues to stop the capture of wild elephants for captive exploitation and to end their suffering in zoos and circuses.
We will never forget you
In a moving short film, our Co-Founder Dame Virginia McKenna remembers Pole Pole the elephant, whose tragic death at London Zoo led to the start of our charity.
Pole Pole pictured with Dame Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers MBE during the filming of ‘An Elephant Called Slowly’
Today is poignant for Born Free, as we especially think about a little elephant who died at London Zoo, on this day, in 1983. Pole Pole was just 17 when she died, yet elephants in the wild can live for 60 years or more.
Pole Pole had a very special connection with our charity as our Co-Founder Dame Virginia explains. Determined her short life and miserable death would not be in vain, Virginia launched our charity in 1984, with her late husband Bill Travers MBE and their eldest son Will Travers OBE. Dismissed at the time as a ‘nine-day wonder’, Born Free is today a world-renowned force for wildlife and, thanks to our tireless campaigning, there are no more elephants at London Zoo.
Now 41 years on, Pole Pole remains at the heart of everything we do to keep wildlife in the wild. “How terrible it is for an elephant – this wisest, cleverest and most sensitive of animals – to be kept in captivity,” explains Virginia. “Pole Pole lit a flame in our hearts. It must never go out.”
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
The keeping of elephants in zoos must end - please sign our petition for the UK government to take the steps needed for an Elephant-Free UK.