After rescuing Pakistan’s loneliest elephant, Cher turns sights to Thailand’s last gorilla

Bua Noi lives above a Thai shopping centre, where she has been alone since her mate died a decade ago

Credit: EPA

After helping rescue "the world’s loneliest elephant" from Pakistan, singer Cher is now attempting to rehome a gorilla living above a Thai shopping centre.

Bua Noi has lived at Pata Zoo on the top floor of a department store in western Bangkok since 1990, has been alone since her mate died a decade ago.

Cher, who has become a prominent animal rights activist, has this week joined those calling for Bua Noi’s release, and has written to Thailand’s environment minister, Varawut Silpa-archa, to express “deep concern” over the living conditions at the Pata department store, and those of other primates.

Pata Zoo has been branded “one of the saddest places in the world” by animal rights group PETA Asia, which called for the facility to be closed down after an investigation found the animals languishing in concrete cells with no physical or mental stimulation.

Cher meeting Pakistan's loneliest elephant known as Kaavan 

Kanit Sermsirimongkol, the centre’s owner, said it would be “difficult” to relocate the gorilla, telling Bangkok Post: “Want to send her back to nature? We should think about the animals’ quality of life in the jungle. They are under threat from diseases like AIDS and Ebola, as well as civil wars and poachers,” he said.

Cher offered for Free the Wild, the animal charity she co-founded, alongside Aspinall Foundation, to secure a sanctuary for the animals at no expense to the zoo’s owner or the Thai government.

She said they could move him to the Congo, where he could enjoy the company of other primates.

Writing on Twitter, Cher appealed to residents of the Thai capital to help her in her mission to relocate Bua Noi.

"Good People Of Bangkok I Know You Will Understand & Help Me Stop The Torturing Of Innocent Animals. It Is a Sin.Please Help Me Bring Peace to these Animals. & Free Them From Pata Zoo…Shopping Mall," she wrote in a series of tweets demanding change.

Cher has recently returned from Southeast Asia after successfully helping 36-year-old Asian elephant Kaavan begin a new life at a reserve in Cambodia following years on his own in a controversial Islamabad zoo.