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