A Voice For The Voiceless
i’m going to start in the same way i
start
most of my real life conversations by
being a mumble
and showing you a picture of my little
boy with our family dog
as you can see they’re best friends
they’re inseparable
here they are again playing in the
nursery and when i was designing my
son’s nursery i
thought that i’d come up with a unique
theme
nine months before andreas came into the
world my partner and i took a
life-changing trip to zambia it was
life-changing for
a number of reasons but out of all the
experiences zambia had to offer
there was one that truly humbled me
the raw untouched wildlife and i didn’t
want my son to have to wait a single
minute
before he could learn about those
animals the elephants the giraffes the
lions
these animals that share our world
and for that reason i created his very
own little london savannah
in the back bedroom now at the time i
was lucky enough to share my pregnancy
journey
with five other pregnant friends we
created a whatsapp group as you do
and anything and everything pregnancy
related went into that
now i would terrify you with the ins and
outs of what went in there
but once i finished the nursery
naturally
i sent a picture to the group only to be
inundated with
four out of five identical pictures
the exact same theme along with the
exact same
jerry the giraffe looking over the crib
well my first thought was
were they at the same zombies love shack
as us well
no if you type into pinterest newborn
nursery ideas
you’ll find pages upon pages of animal
themed designs
and it makes total sense why parents
will gravitate towards them
exotic animals from far away lands give
us
all a sense of wonder and adventure
you can ignite your child’s mind before
they’ve even left the crib
pretty much from day one we’re exposing
our children to animals through
toys through books through films
disney has this off to a fine art but to
have
our children interact with real animals
early on in life is a whole different
ball game
and i’ve seen this firsthand the
relationship between
my son and our dog from such an
early age my son has showed so much
respect and
awareness for another living being
offering his food
brushing his coat playing fairly with
his toys
and he was learning these lessons from
an animal
our dog the teacher taught him
connection
taught him empathy taught him care
but these behaviors are not reserved for
humans and
domesticated animals these behaviors are
found throughout
the animal kingdom they show empathy
love creativity
i mean heck i’m taking a few tips off
the back of her
motherly devotion now i’m not asking you
to
leave your little one at the side of the
zambezi to make friends
no but i am asking that you recognize
that these living beings have the same
traits and characteristics
as all of us they have their own
families their own homes
their own lives we all share the same
world we all share the same joy
of life but many of these animals
are under threat and by threat i mean a
number of them will be extinct by the
time our children reach their late teens
the murals we have in our children’s
nurseries of elephants of
tigers of whales might soon be just
a history lesson they will show how once
upon a time
these beautiful creatures walk this land
and swam the oceans
animals have been on our planet for
hundreds of millions of years
let’s just take a look at what’s
happened within the last 200 years
animals are steadily thriving and then
boom
1970 hits we’ve wiped out animals
everywhere within two generations sixty
percent of the world’s animals have been
erased
that’s one dead animal for every person
in north america
south america africa europe
china and oceania this isn’t just sad
this is
dangerous we are destroying the world
our children will inherit
do we really understand what role
animals play in the biodiversity of our
planet
let’s look at one species in particular
now i like to call these earth’s
ecosystem engineers
the gentle giants of the land elephants
when forest elephants eat and they eat a
lot they create necessary gaps in the
vegetation which makes way for other
species and
also allows new plants to grow and what
happens when elephants eat a lot they go
to the little lot
and this is a major way in which trees
disperse their seeds for
hundreds of miles now aside from being
climate warriors themselves elephants
are enormously
sensitive creatures they express
compassion and
they love playing when one of their
elephant friends has been away for a
while
they perform greeting ceremonies and
they hug
with their trunks they also express
altruism and grief if an elephant dies
they perform an almost
funeral-like ritual by gently touching
the body
with the trunk and covering it with
leaves and grass
if it’s one of their own they stay for
days sometimes
weeks guarding the body
a hundred years ago 12 million african
elephants
freely roam the grasslands now only 400
000 survive every day 100 of those
elephants are being massacred for their
ivory and body parts and
because elephants have such a long
pregnancy
22 months to be precise more elephants
are being killed
than are being born and this is
ludicrously unsustainable
over in asia it’s the same story there
are only 45 000 elephants left in the
wild
but their lives are at threat for
different reasons
reasons that i unintentionally
discovered several years ago
in india i was filming in tamil nadu for
the first time during the bali
and had some time off so i decided to
take my mum and dad
on a trip to goa as rookie brits tend to
do
we were ready to explore and on the
second day we found ourselves at a spice
market
where a tour guide informed us about an
elephant sanctuary
oh well this was music to our
self-proclaimed animal obsessed ears
a place where we could volunteer for the
day and get up close and personal with
india’s most
majestic creatures it sounded like
something we couldn’t miss so
we didn’t waste any time we went
straight there but within 15 minutes of
arriving at the so-called
sanctuary it was clear that we were on a
conveyor belt of
animal exploitation you know that series
tiger king well
we were on the set of elephant king at
the entrance we were greeted by the
trunk of a female elephant who
ushered us to her back and her keeper
who used a well-rehearsed bit of
flattery said oh she loves people she
wants you to ride with her
she’ll walk you in we were apprehensive
but then felt
obliged as we were chased up a ramp and
onto her back
as a then naive animal lover it felt
incredible to be so close with this
gentle giant it felt surreal
a minute later we dismounted and
continued to walk further up the
riverbank
where we were then met by another
elephant who was instructed to blow
water out of our trunk
that’s when we thought okay this is
unnatural and around every corner there
was an elephant performing some kind of
show as we went deeper into the forest
we found
tiny cages where baby elephants were
kept in isolation
swaying from side to side in an almost
trance-like manner
this wasn’t a sanctuary this was a
circus
we left riddled with guilt and as soon
as i got back to the hotel
i got my laptop out and i decided to do
some research
so what actually happens when elephants
are part
of a circus well more often than not
they’re taken away from their mothers as
babies sometimes
their mothers are killed in front of
their eyes trying to protect
their young and even as babies
elephants are highly intelligent with a
strong mind
of their own so to train them they use
torture
as a training method this is called the
crush
just as the word suggests this crushes
the animal’s spirit and forces them into
submission through fear and pain
it takes years of this abuse before they
surrender
after learning the dark truth behind
elephant rides and such
i vowed to spread awareness amongst
other oblivious tourists but to have
international impact the whole system
needs changing
the problem is that these elephants
aren’t protected by the law
i was so disturbed with what i’d seen i
went straight to the local authorities
who told me it was out of their control
now even though capturing elephants for
commercial profit has been illegal
in india since the 70s an amnesty back
in 2002
allowed people to keep already captive
elephants
so long as they were registered however
these captive elephants still make
people money
they’re still being captured they’re
still being traded
all supported by dodgy documents
a few months later and with the goer
incident still fresh
in my mind i found myself filming a
project in the backwaters of kerala
mid scene sirens started to screech and
villagers started to panic
women hid whilst men grabbed weapons
firecrackers lit torches
it was like a scene from a horror movie
then an elephant and a calf plowed
through the field opposite running
directly
over a train track which was empty thank
god
whilst being bombarded with rocks and
burning logs
it was horrific i had no idea
why these people were going out of their
way to attack this mother and her
harmless baby
but this is happening every day in india
here’s another similar incident in
bish nepal because of these two separate
occasions i felt compelled to do
something
i had to do something so i reached out
to the elephant family
a charity that prides itself on
protecting elephants
worldwide but in particular south asia
that’s when i learned about the extreme
human wildlife conflict
all across asia we are seeing
industrialization and development and
as a result of this animals are being
forced off their traditional lands to
find food and water
this then causes a problem for farmers
hungry elephants damage crops and put
the farmers already
precarious livelihoods at risk and not
only are their livelihoods at risk
but also their lives within the last
five years
two thousand people have died due to
human wildlife conflict in india
in the same respect although a lot
harder to comprehend
elephant owners along with poachers make
their living off the back of western
tourism and ivory demands
from wealthy buyers exploiting not only
the animals
but the poverty-stricken locals it’s a
vicious cycle
caused by affluent in reality
it’s people like us and that’s why we
must
unite we’re at a point in history where
our generation can either take action
or simply do nothing we can save these
incredible creatures
or watch them die out before our very
eyes
so first up save people to save animals
elephants are the icons of india and
africa they’re tourism magnets
that means we can all play our part so
choose an ethical tour partner and visit
national parks that not only rescue and
nurture needy elephants
but also rescue and nurture former
elephant owners and ex-poachers who
are in need of a way out these
organizations dedicate time and money
into re-educating them so they can turn
their animal knowledge into
conservation work the next thing you can
do
is support foundations that dedicate
themselves to solving
human animal conflict each and every
case
is different there’s no quick fix the
best foundation spend time talking with
the locals
educating assessing the environment in
this way problems are solved
and both animals and humans are saved
and finally a worldwide solution
that not only protects elephants but
millions
of other animals tougher international
laws
to protect their welfare what kind of
example does a set when the world’s most
influential country the us
lift to ban to allow hunters to import
their so-called
trophies from africa let’s start with a
solid global ivory ban
we must get campaigning petitioning
protesting
we must change the course of history
thank you and remember you can be a
voice for the voiceless