Open Letter to the Ministers
Over the last few months, Free The Wild Trustee Anika Sleem and Team Kaavan's Diana Muñoz have been tirelessly chipping away at a seemingly impenetrable fortress. As most of you will know, over the last five years Free The Wild has been speaking to, meeting with, emailing and negotiating with the Pakistan government to have Kaavan the elephant released from Islamabad Zoo.
If you are not aware of Kaavan's story, please take a few minutes to familiarise yourself with his struggles and how a number of NGOs, animal experts, conservationists and even the public have tried for more than five years to him freed.
Despite the team's diplomatic and understanding approach to the negotiations between Free The Wild and the Pakistan government, we have reached a point where new measures need to be taken.
Patience has not worked, promises have not been kept and time has been wasted to such an extent that we are going to have to try something different.
It is with this in mind that we'd like to ask for your help. As much as we'd appreciate more donations, we actually need your fingers and your passion more than anything else right now!
We've decided to embark on an email bombardment campaign - or as Anika prefers to call it, an "Email Storm". And rightly so. Our objective is to create a whirlwind - an influx in demand for Kaavan's freedom - and have it delivered right to the respective ministers in charge. He has suffered for long enough, and the more people that join in, the more likely we'll be to get a response.
We will be sharing 14 email addresses with you, all associated with the ministers and officials responsible for Kaavan and Islamabad Zoo, and we ask that this week (18 May - 25 May), you please;
1) Copy the email template and subject we've prepared below;
2) Paste it into your emailer;
3) Copy the ministers' email addresses;
4) Paste them into your email recipient field, then;
5) Hit send and add to the Storm!
Email Template:
Please copy the following into your emailer:
Dear Respected Authority,
We are writing to you deeply concerned for the welfare of Kaavan, an Asian elephant being held in horrible conditions and in isolation for over 3 decades at Islamabad zoo.
Kaavan was brought to Pakistan from Sri Lanka when he was around 1 year old, made to live in barren conditions and continuously chained. He had a companion named Saheli but she died in 2012 simply because her caretakers were unable to provide her the most basic medical care.