A popular pachyderm is safe thanks to a massive online campaign against animal abuse

Moli adapts to her new environment in June after returning to Kunming Zoo. (YANG ZHENG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

An Asian elephant calf from Southwest China who captured the hearts of tens of millions during an online campaign to free her from suspected abuse is finally back home where she belongs. 

After she was born at Kunming Zoo in the capital of Yunnan province in 2016, the calf became very popular and soon attracted the attention of local TV stations, one of which livestreamed a party celebrating her 100th day alive.

On the young elephant’s first birthday, she was officially named Moli, which sounds the same as the Mandarin word for jasmine flower. Locals said the name was given to reflect people’s best wishes for her, according to The-Paper.cn, an online news portal.

A report on China Central Television said Moli was served a huge “cake” consisting of various fruits, while hundreds of children surrounded her enclosure and sang Happy Birthday. Moli’s keepers said they would hold birthday parties for her every year.

However, Moli did not enjoy a second birthday party at the zoo — instead, her life was to take a complex and sinister turn. 

In spring 2018, the then 2-year-old was transferred from Kunming to a zoo in Qinyang, a city in the central province of Henan, in exchange for another Asian elephant. The plan was to mate the older elephant in new surroundings to widen the gene pool in China’s zoos.

That was probably Moli’s last public appearance until August last year, when a number of netizens noticed an emaciated young elephant that often appeared in short videos shot at zoos in the cities of Jiaozuo and Zhoukou in Henan.

The footage, shared on popular short video-sharing platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, showed the young female, accompanied by a man holding an ankus, a tool with a hook and a pointed end that is used to force animals to obey commands.

The elephant, whose feet were chained, could be seen performing tricks, including “playing” the mouth organ and doing a headstand, and being ridden by tourists.

An elephant family is pictured in Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The videos quickly went viral on social media because after comparing the footage with earlier videos from Kunming Zoo, some netizens concluded that the elephant was Moli, who they had dubbed the “princess of Asian elephants”.

Many volunteers and animal protection organizations posted on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, asking whether Moli was being abused and forced to perform, and also querying why the elephant, which should have been at Qinyang Zoo, was appearing at other facilities.

In September last year, Kunming Zoo confirmed that the elephant in the videos was indeed Moli, and that she had been rented out to other zoos for “exhibition purposes”, according to local media reports.

Henan’s Jiaozuo Forest Zoo rejected all criticism and denied that the animal had been mistreated.

“Indeed, a little elephant has been exhibited at our zoo, but it was healthy and not abused,” the zoo said in a September statement, adding that it is common practice to transfer animals to other facilities to “meet tourists’ demands”.

It also said that chaining elephants’ feet during behavioral training and exhibition was not abuse, but in line with industry norms.

However, Zheng Yu, a wildlife project manager at the international nongovernmental organization World Animal Protection, did not think that was the case. 

“Most animal performances look easy, but they are usually based on punishment training, including being starved, whipped and intimidated with an ankus, which is obviously abuse,” she said.

“The mental and physical health of these animals, who mostly live in confined spaces, can be damaged because they cannot express themselves.”

According to China’s laws and regulations on the protection of wildlife, Asian elephants enjoy the highest level of State protection, and it is illegal to abuse animals. However, the law does not give a specific definition of abuse.

The statement from Jiaozuo zoo failed to convince tens of thousands of netizens. 

Workers assess the health of a newborn calf that was abandoned by its herd in Xishuangbanna last year. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

To learn more about the elephant’s “rental period” and the administrative permission for the move, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, an NGO, submitted several applications for information disclosure to the zoos at which Moli had stayed, including Kunming Zoo, Jiaozuo Forest Zoo and the zoo in Qinyang.

The only reply came from Kunming Zoo, which refused to disclose the information, describing it as a “business secret”. 

It told local media that it had “no right” to get Moli back from Qinyang because ownership had passed to the zoo there in accordance with their contract.

In the months that followed, a growing number of volunteers and netizens offered to contact the Weibo accounts of celebrities, mainstream media and key opinion leaders to call for greater attention to help Moli return to Kunming.

Eventually, the trickle of constant appeals became a flood of criticism and questions. 

In April, the biggest-trending Weibo hashtag #SaveElephantMoli received more than 310 million views in just a few days after several celebrities joined the calls to help the young elephant.

One of the best-known figures was Joe Chen, an actor from Taiwan. 

“Please save the poor little elephant Moli and speak up for her!” Chen wrote in two April 24 posts on her Weibo account, which has more than 70 million followers. 

“It’s really heartbreaking to see the little elephant carrying scars, as she shouldn’t be treated like that. Please refuse animal performances and don’t abuse animals.”

Chen’s posts rapidly went viral. The first received nearly 100,000 thumbs-ups and 14,000 comments, and it was forwarded 60,000 times by netizens, including by two other celebrities who have about 80 million fans in total on Weibo.

The comments under Chen’s posts revealed people’s deep concern about Moli and other potentially abused wildlife, and urged Qinyang Zoo to send her back to Kunming.

One netizen, @ZhuteZhizhuo, commented with a crying emoji, “Hope more people can focus on the little elephant Moli! Don’t harm animals,” receiving more than 5,500 thumbs-ups.

Visitors greet Moli after her return to Kunming Zoo. (YANG ZHENG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

A comment from @VeselaXa-vier4ever received nearly 3,000 thumbs-ups, showing people’s understanding that Moli’s case could have a deep impact on wildlife protection.

“We just want Moli to be free ... right now,” the netizen said, adding that the case would be a “milestone which could promote better development in relations between humans and animals”.

Some media also paid great attention to Moli. While conducting interviews at the Qinyang Zoo, Ifeng, the official website of Phoenix TV, came across a delegation from the Henan Forestry Administration that was tasked with investigating Moli’s health. 

The members told Ifeng that Moli’s mental state was good and no obvious scars had been discovered.

However, the torrent of criticism and questions remained until May 15, when the Henan Forestry Administration announced that Moli had been sent back to Kunming.

“To respond to public concerns and provide a better growing environment, the Asian elephant Moli at Qinyang Zoo left for Kunming Zoo on May 15,” it said in a statement.

People immediately became excited, with the hashtag #MoliSent-BackToKunmingZoo viewed more than 140 million times, ranking high on Weibo’s trending list. 

A netizen from Kunming, @YourFullMoon, commented, “We will see Moli quite often after she returns to Kunming! And we’ll expose any problems!”

Late on May 16, Moli arrived at Kunming Zoo, which quickly began a full physical examination and adaptive training. At the end of June, Moli was reunited with her mother in their old enclosure for the first time since 2018, when she left her family, home and normal life.

While Moli’s problems had come to an end, the public attention did not stop. “Take Moli’s case as a chance to intensify wildlife protection,” said one highly liked Weibo comment by @WangFei3040, who said netizens will continue to focus on whether animals are being abused and forced to perform.

jiangchenglong@chinadaily.com.cn