ALLAN THE MAN

PETITION FOR A CAUSE: Imagine, if you can, a youngster, shipped to a strange and frightening place, never to see her family or home ever again. But no alert is ever issued, no reward for her safe return offered. This is because the victim is an elephant, Mali, the lone elephant at the Manila Zoo.

This nursing baby was taken from Sri Lanka in 1974 and has spent the last 35 years in a small, concrete pen.

Try to imagine living your whole life in a room the size of a bedroom, seeing the same four walls every day. You'd have no friends or companionship and nothing whatsoever to pass the time or provide you with comfort. You'd never get to leave. That's exactly what life is like for Mali.