Imagine spending 3 decades in a small zoo enclosure. Being chained up with only one other friend, getting fed incorrectly, and being mistreated. Well, a very loving and kind elephant named, Kaavan, experienced all of this for more than 30 years. Kaavan was gifted to a zoo in Pakistan at just 1 years old. It was said that the keepers would poke and prod at him and his companion, Saheli. The type of care that they got was not enough for such intelligent animals. The two elephants became obese, and their health was deteriorating by the minute. Then one day in 2012, Kaavan lost his only friend he has ever known. He became very violent, angry, and despondent. Attention came to the zoo when the Pakistan court ordered the zoo to shut down and that the animals were to be relocated. When news of the elephant reached pop singer, Cher, through twitter, she knew she had to do something to save the animal. She reached out to Mark Cowne, somebody who loved animals as much as she did. “She had met Mark, who has helped move over 300 elephants, and said, ‘Listen, we have got to do something,’ so he started coming over here and finding out what’s happening, and they decided to form Free the wild, hoping that we can get big animals, at least starting with big animals, out of zoos,” Cher’s assistant Jennifer Ruiz told CBS news in Islamabad. Vets and experts from the UK started teaming up with the Free the Wild campaign to help prepare Kaavan, mentally and physically, for his long awaited trip to a sanctuary in Cambodia. While moving such a large animal during a pandemic is hard, it’s not impossible. Kaavan’s pre-flight test came back negative, but he will still have to quarantine for 30 days upon arrival to his new home. After that, he will have 3 acres all to himself which is still a huge upgrade from his only half-acre enclosure in Islamabad. Once his quarantine is finished, he will join 3 female elephants and start a new life on 25,000 acres of land. Cher has made a huge impact on this animal’s life, and she plans to continue her journey of rescuing animals from bad habitats.