Lasah, a 36-year-old Asian elephant, has never had it easy. Caught in the wild as a young animal, he would find himself forced to work in logging, where he endured backbreaking hardships. He would also find himself confined to small enclosures in a zoo, where visitors came to gawk at…

According to a recent article in Free Malaysia Today, there is not one zoo in Malaysia that fully complies with the country’s Wildlife Conservation Act. Today, every Malaysian zoo features iron bars, cement enclosures, dirty cages and profoundly unhappy animals. A large number of personal accounts describe unfortunate family experiences…