As always, our UK team of Dave, Nicky, Gill, Lara, Fiona, Sue and Eileen worked their socks off in the months and weeks before, organising venues, ticket sales, auction and raffle prizes, and making sure that everything was smooth and professional throughout.
Tuan, our Vietnam Director and I rolled into the UK, and on Tuesday 9th June, we joined Born Free and its founder – my heroine and patron of Animals Asia UK – Virginia McKenna, in the first presentation of the 10-day show. Virginia and I had not seen each other’s presentations beforehand, but we both showed the slide of us together when she came over to Chengdu to see our beautiful bears.
In the early days of struggling with the decision to start Animals Asia in 1998, I asked Ginny [Virginia] what she would do – to be told “just do it”. And so welcoming her on site to meet Jasper, Banjo, Delaney and, of course Ginny bear, was a profound and very proud time for me.
Virginia and I also both spoke in our presentations about the “individual” – about how people’s respect and help for these animals can inspire a unique connection with them, and ultimately with the species they represent. This took me back again to when I was six years old, seeing Virginia in “Born Free” with Elsa the lioness, and feeling a compelling connection with the animal world. This film would steer me to the decisions I’ve made and ultimately, my life with the bears.
That night’s event, like the rest of the shows, was filled with the most wonderful atmosphere. Every show saw friends engaged together, re-affirming our promise to the animals; of ending bear farming and the consumption of dogs and cats.
Later, on a glorious Sunday, we had our first official support group meeting, which brought people together who had been tirelessly raising awareness and funds, now sharing their experiences and discussing how we move ahead. These people are the lifeblood of our campaigns – like supporters everywhere across the world – who give us the wherewithal to go on.
Other special events included a wonderfully “highbrow” day at Dick White Referrals where veterinary surgeon Dick White, his wife Christine and daughter Jenny held an outdoor extravaganza of stalls and events, before an evening’s presentation and auction in a beautiful marquee.
Dick, his family and staff have been so generous to the bears over the years – coming out to help surgically at no cost to Animals Asia, and raising funds to name and sponsor their own bear – Dick – who is recovering today from his abuse on a bile farm.
Next, an evening at Twycross Zoo saw our presentation to their supporters and Board. This was organised by Chief Executive of the Zoo, Suzie Boardman, who operated on farmed bears in our care back in 1995.
A fun morning assembly – inspired by the passion of teacher Jenny Lavery – the next day at Hallgrove School saw a sea of wide-eyed faces excitedly promising to help bears thousands of miles away. We also took some tricky and hysterically funny questions that only a four-year-old could ask.
Finally to the Woburn event, inspired by our longtime friend Lord Robin Russell, who kindly took Tuan and I out to lunch before we prepared for the last show of the tour. That evening saw UK celebrity and another longtime friend, Martin Roberts of BBC’s “Homes under the Hammer”, gently cajoling our supporters to join him in bidding for some beautiful auction items so generously donated by kind contributors across the UK.
The time passed too quickly and Nicky wrote a wonderful update summarising each event and highlighting the generosity of our friends – our Animals Asia family – in the UK. These wonderful people offer the faith and funding we need to continue breaking open cage doors and giving animals in Asia their voice. Please click here to read Nicky’s roundup.
I can’t end this blog without saying a huge thanks to our very special UK supporter, Lee Gibbins. Here’s Lee receiving her much-deserved Outstanding Support Group Leader Award during the roadshow.
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There are no words to express our sense of loss as once again I have to tell you of the death of one of our beautiful bears. Especially a bear like Haribo, whose determination to survive captured the hearts of all who had the privilege to know him.
I fell in love with this bear from the second he arrived, and it grew as he so bravely tolerated wave after wave of health-checks and surgeries so necessary to correct the ravages of his life on the farm.
Squat and dumpy like Blanca and Woodley (hence his nickname “Poodley” on arrival), he never once bore a grudge for his past and just got on with the present. He loved every type of food, making those attention-seeking "raspberry" sounds whenever he wanted more – knowing full well that certain pockets were full of gummy bears.
Thankfully, he made it to the special-care area of Rupert, Franzi and Snoopy's house and just adored his time outdoors – snoring happily underneath the stars. No other bear outside of Rupert captured fussy Franzi’s heart either, and her interest in the fellow on the other side of the bars made us hope that she might one day end up with two toy boys, who would make her feel the special bear she is.
I'm so sorry I couldn't be in Chegdu last Friday with the team, who were, I know, weeping rivers for the loss of this brave little bear. Here is vet Jen’s update on events as, with sad, sad hearts, we all say farewell to another bear who teaches us the meaning of forgiveness:
Little Haribo, who stole everyone’s heart was sadly euthanised today after his hind legs failed him. Over the past two weeks, he had become progressively worse, from being quite stiff, to not being able to stand at all and not wanting to move for the special treats Caroline lovingly made for him daily.
Haribo had been a fighter getting through his early surgery and later episodes of bloating and vomiting despite all medical efforts. On post mortem, it was found that his oesophagus was dilated many times more than normal which despite our medical management could not have been fixed.
X-rays confirmed that his spine had multiple areas where the disc spaces were compressed, over time putting more and more pressure on his spinal cord slowly cutting off the nerve function to his hind legs. We all wanted to keep Haribo with us for a very long time, but we all knew that we needed to make sure that Haribo left this world still being able to enjoy that one last gummy bear!
PS: My favourite pic of Haribo – grinning – taken by Heather:
Happily, 10 of the bears that arrived with Haribo have made the difficult journey through their surgeries, recovery and integration with other bears. Please go to the Rescue Diary to read their individual stories and to see their "before and after" photos.
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With a heavy heart I'm afraid that the weekend has brought no positive news following the cruel slaughter of dogs in Shaanxi Province last week. Our good friend, Chinese animal welfarist Jianghong and her team have just returned from a traumatic trip to Hangzhong city and Yangxian. They saw no dogs alive in the streets of Yanxian - just the broken carcasses of innocent victims, and officials washing their hands of blood, and responsibility, for such a brutal knee jerk reaction to rabies.
The authorities have blindly continued in their cull, despite receiving solid advice from experts in China and across the world who stress that such action will not address the core problem of rabies outbreaks in China. Our letter passed over by Jianghong was virtually ignored by officials seemingly unmoved and uncaring, with their action so damaging
to the image of the country.
We must hold on to hope - because brave citizens like Jianghong are rising higher and higher in defence of the voiceless, and need our help more than ever.
Before leaving, she and her group sadly held a mourning ceremony in Hangzhong city together with over 200 residents in memory of the dogs so savagely slaughtered. Their SOS of candles apparently failed to turn the cold, cold hearts of the authorities, but continued uniting animal lovers everywhere now publicly demonstrating against a regime of heartless brutality towards animals so deserving of our respect.
Read the full update on Jianghong's visit here.
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The sight of those wretched dogs trying to crawl away from the people bludgeoning them over the head was beyond words. More heartbreaking still was the scene where a dog was surrounded by men with poles and began to wag his tail in welcome - before screaming in agony as the poles and rods came down upon his body. Howling in terror, he tried to raise himself on already broken limbs as the blows came thick and fast and sent him crashing once more to the ground. Blood gathered in pools around his head before he was picked up by one of his back legs and dragged away. The pile of dead dogs grew - and people in the video laughed – satisfied with a job which had so cruelly stilled the beating hearts of our best friends.
I watched the film in disbelief – thinking surely we were of a different species to those dreadful people so utterly disconnected to the agony of animals who feel pain and terror and a host of emotions so similar to ours. That life can be so dismissively snuffed out as if it held no importance in this world reflects so appallingly on a country and people I have grown to love.
Culling in China is back - in all its bloody glory - and we need your help to make a stronger push than ever before to drive it into the dark ages where it belongs. Local animal welfare groups in China are also appalled –and we are working closely with them in appeals to the authorities – united in our call that dogs deserve better.
Animals Asia is trying to raise funds to support these groups in their efforts to stop the cull and provide the Hanzhong city authorities with an alternative solution to dog population and disease control.
Please click here to read our response to this latest cull in Hanzhong and please send any amount you can afford so that dogs who wag their tails at people in the future are met with kind smiles and perhaps an affectionate pat, rather than a hateful bloody end to their lives.
To donate to the dog cull appeal, please click here.
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9.17am, Tuesday 26 May: No less than three vets are concentrating on Assisi’s surgery – including our friend Dr John Wu from Guangzhou (wearing purple), just coincidentally on site to see our bears, but happy to scrub in.
Assisi is the second-to-last bear of our 10 survivors from the bear farm in February to have his cholecystectomy (removal of damaged gall bladder), and is also undergoing castration and removal of three badly broken canines (resulting from frustrated bar-biting on the farm).
In truth, we've been worried sick about this beautiful bear. Just a couple of weeks ago, he had a scan after vet Heather and team picked up a mass in his chest on the X-ray.
UK radiologists interpreted the scan, confirming the mass in his chest, and explaining that it could be one of two things: dilation of his aorta (large vessel leaving the heart), or a tumour inside the walls of the aorta.
As Heather summarised, either of these conditions is essentially untreatable, has a poor long-term prognosis in other species and would generally be a case for euthanasia. However, during our years of working with these rather incredible bears, we've learned that they are remarkably resilient and can often tolerate conditions that would prove fatal for other animals.
Indeed, one of our biggest frustrations is when one of our rescued bears doesn’t get to walk on grass – when we lose him or her to diseases such as liver cancer before they’ve had their day in the sun. So for every bear with a "chance", we carefully consider the options from both medical and welfare perspectives and make the best decisions we can.
Consequently, bears with various conditions whose pain we can “manage” and minimise, are given their chance and carefully observed while living in their grassy enclosures, enjoying happy days out with their friends.
And Assisi deserves his chance. We've all agreed that as he is showing minimal clinical signs, and has already survived a fistula surgery (or butchery) on the farm and a health-check with us, the surgery to remove his gall bladder and ongoing rehabilitation is well worth a shot. We will hold on to our dream of seeing him play on grass until the day we all sadly acknowledge that his borrowed time has run out.
This decision was also well-received and agreed on by his generous sponsors, Bob Kerridge and his team at the New Zealand SPCA, who also have been praying for this bear since he first arrived. Bob and staff have been nothing short of wonderful to our bears over the years, spreading the message of their plight on the farms and raising funds that help in the ongoing course of our work.
Choosing from our last arrivals in February of this year, a bear we nicknamed “Hamster”, seemed to be just right for “their” bear. He was so called because after arriving from the farm, he carefully pulled down the straw we placed on top of his barbaric cage, piece by laborious piece, until he’d crafted what was obviously the perfect bed – and curled up comfortably to sleep.
Even standing up in those early days after arrival must have been torture for this bear, as two of his claws had grown around into a circle, painfully puncturing his pads. The stench from this injured rotting flesh was nauseating, and the years of incessant, throbbing pain must have been hard for him to endure. Here he is on arrival, his neglected claws clearly visible:
ArrivalFeb2009.jpg)
Today, the SPCA’s chosen name, “Assisi” – after Saint Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Animals – seems just perfect for this brave and gentle bear.
10.10am: Looking at Assisi now on the table, breathing well and stable under anaesthetic, we’re all holding our breath in hope. The various procedures are being performed simultaneously to minimise the length of time he has to spend on the table and on the gas.
Our fabulous nurses, Caz and Wendy, and volunteer Kelly are busily monitoring the anaesthetic, spinning the bloods, taking samples of the gall bladder for the Chinese pathologist who is working with us to analyse, giving drugs, replacing drips, and keeping Heather, Jen and John supplied with sterile instruments, blades and suture materials, as Assisi sleeps on.
11.02am: The gall bladder is out and, surprisingly doesn't look too bad, although Heather has found some scarring on his liver which originated from the surgery on the farm. Still, as she says, the liver can rejuvenate itself well and she doesn't expect any long-term problems there.
Jen has already removed two of his broken teeth, and is working on the third – and Assisi is now also missing two little organs at the other end of his body, now that his castration is also complete. Somehow it seems safe at last to breathe.
Last week I spent some time with this long and lovely bear, enjoying how bright and curious he was, as he greedily bolted down a selection of fruit with all the enthusiasm of a fully fit bear.
His lemony moon-shaped crescent is glorious and runs into a shawl on his shoulders, and he would also have beautiful "Mickey Mouse" ears if they weren’t cut off at the ends (perhaps bitten by another bear on the farm when their cages were placed too tightly together).
And throughout this adoration, Assisi played the ravenous bear-card to perfection, scrounging extra fruit just by looking in our direction with those soulful, melting, brown eyes.
12.30: Assisi is off the gas and now being wheeled into the recovery room where lovely volunteer Lucy will sit with him until he is awake and standing on all fours. Within a couple of days, fingers crossed, he'll be feeling much better, and his surgery scars will be well on their way to healing.
Until then, tender, loving care – and heaps of it – is the order of the day, as together we all pray for this saint of a bear to be well.
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