07/07/2021
Hats off to Damian Aspinall who is willing to ask the hard questions even when that means examining the work he has done for decades and accepting he may have gone down the wrong route to save wild animals.
He is now strongly for re-wilding animals from captivity back into the wild, and as you may have heard is working with the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to take 13 elephants from Howletts Zoo to Kenya, where they will be given 24 hour armed guards to protect them. 🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘
Protecting wild animals in their natural habitat and bringing an end to poaching is the paradigm shift needed in the world.
Will Travers of Born Free said: “This decision, coupled with the statement by Damian Aspinall, Chairman of the Aspinall Foundation, that he wants to see zoos phased out within 30 years - a position Born Free has consistently taken since the day it was founded in 1984 - marks the beginning of a paradigm shift in thinking and practice, away from the holding of wild animals in ex situ captivity and towards their effective conservation and protection in the wild, where they belong.”
The move is being supported by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, established by the late Dame Dr Daphne Sheldrick and now run by her daughter Angela, which has unparalleled experience in returning elephant orphans to the wild, and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the country’s wildlife conservation agency.
https://www.bornfree.org.uk/news/howletts-elephants
