The Aspinall Foundation, which is fronted by Mrs Johnson, said it plans to transport a total of thirteen elephants - weighing 25 tonnes - more than 4,000 miles on a Boeing 747 to a secret location in Kenya in a 'ground-breaking step for this country and the conservation movement'.
The charity said it would work with anti-poaching teams to help ensure the long-term survival of the 13 animals - including three babies - once they reach one of two sites under consideration in southern Kenya.
Well, the Kenyan authorities must be overjoyed, surely?
But Kenya's Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife said it 'noted with concern' the reports in the British media about what the charity has described as the first rewilding project of its kind.
'The ministry wants to state that neither them nor the Kenya Wildlife Service have been contacted or consulted on this matter,' the ministry said. 'Relocation and rehabilitation of an animal from a zoo is not easy and is an expensive affair.'
But how could they turn this down, aren't they short of elephants over there?
Reader, they are not.
Damian Aspinall, chairman of The Aspinall Foundation, told the Daily Telegraph: 'This is an incredibly exciting project and a genuine world-first. As with any conservation project of this magnitude, there are obviously big risks, but we consider them well worth it to get these magnificent beasts back into the wild where they belong.'
Yes, of course you do. Because it's not about the welfare of the animals at all, is it?
Every one of the 'relocated' elephants will be dead within five years. Why? They are not a HERD. A herd is led by a matriarch who knows her area intimately and leads the herd to available water in times of drought, to areas where food is abundant during the breeding season. Males are kicked out of the herd until the breeding season, only juvenile males stay with the herd. Strange elephants are not welcomed in a herd, they are chased away. This relocation farce is being cruel to those elephants involved.
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