Born Free’s History

In 1966, Virginia McKenna OBE and Bill Travers MBE starred in the classic wildlife film Born Free. The film told the true story of conservationists Joy and George Adamson who rescued a lioness cub called Elsa and successfully returned her to the wild.

Virginia and Bill went on to make a number of wildlife films together, including the 1969 picture “An Elephant Called Slowly” with an elephant calf called Pole Pole. When filming was over, Pole Pole was gifted to London Zoo by the Kenyan government.

Virginia and Bill did everything they could to prevent this, but Pole Pole was sent to London. Virginia and Bill launched a campaign to give Pole Pole a better life but in 1983, aged 16, Pole Pole died. Determined that her death would not be in vain, in 1984, Virginia, Bill and their eldest son Will launched Zoo Check – the charity that has evolved into Born Free. Today, Will Travers OBE is Born Free’s Executive President.

Mission and Purpose

Born Free’s mission is to make sure that all wild animals are treated fairly, and with compassion, whether they be in the wild or in captivity. They are opposed to the keeping of wild animals in captivity and work hard to educate against it. Their work takes them across the globe and into all avenues that relate to wild animal welfare. They have nine working priorities which broadly encompass all that they do:

• A desire to end captive wild animal exploitation
• Campaigning for the elimination of trophy hunting
• Working towards ending illegal wildlife trade
• Rescue and rehabilitation of individual wild animals
• Conservation – promoting human/wildlife co-existence
• Supporting the protection of wild animal habitats
• Creation of the Wildlife Protection Model
• Education of communities to the welfare of wild animals
• UK Wildlife protection