If ever the bears can show that their lives have come full circle, that they are happy to be with other members of their species, free to explore, forage and play, it is when we are lucky enough to catch them doing exactly what they shouldn’t be doing in the enclosures – right in front of our Bear Manager’s eyes.
Despite the tireless attempts of our team members to protect the trees on site, clearly the bears run rings around them all. They love nothing better than showing how well they can unravel the rope holding bamboo strips in place that protect the trees in their enclosures – and then showing how well they can climb to the top!
Generally – and remarkably, these are our "physically challenged" bears in House 6, missing limbs from being caught in traps in the wild and now showing how an apparent "disability" means nothing to them at all.
Old favourites who have been with us for years, like naughty three-legged Somerset (who arrived as a cub in 2004, sponsored by fabulous Lee Gibbins and her Moon Bear Rescue group it the UK), are now skilfully showing the new youngsters how to break all the rules.
We can’t help laughing. The word went out recently on the sanctuary walkie-talkies that another tree party was taking place, and we all ran over to see.
There was Somerset high in the tree-top, gleefully stripping branches away from the tree and throwing them down to no less than 14 of his eager partners-in-crime. Hours later, a few stray twigs and leaves were all that was left from an afternoon of ursine fun.
Luckily for this story, our Bear Manager, Donata, was there with her camera recording the whole sordid scene of damage and destruction by a group of happy, delinquent bears that don't give a thought to their past.
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Some of you may have heard that Beijing has banned its official Olympics restaurants from serving dog meat during the Games. Our China Relations Director Christie Yang quickly wrote to the Mayor of Beijing calling for the ban to be made permanent.
For more, please go to our press release.
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Tuesday 10am and Jen’s just made the first incision into Miracle’s, abdomen. At that precise moment, the lights flickered, some of the equipment stopped and our vet teams’ eyes opened wide over their masks. With a sleeping bear on the surgery table, this is not a good time for the electricity to fail.
Luckily for us - and Miracle - the emergency generator kicked in (thank goodness we have one) and things returned to normal. Such are the challenges of working in the field in Vietnam. Here for a few days as some of our rescued bears have the exploratory surgery to determine the impacts of a lifetime of bile extraction, I still can’t help but marvel every time I see our amazing team of vets, nurses, bear managers and team at work.
Today marks the very first bear on the operating table for a major procedure in our new sanctuary in Vietnam - and this team, as always, has everything covered.
Just an hour or so ago, everyone was busily working around a nicely recumbent bear. Vet nurses Cands and Fiona, shaving her abdomen, hoovering up her fur from the table, the floor and around her body (yes really!), trimming nails, taking blood, and hooking her up to the monitoring equipment, which would make sure, among other things, that her heart, respiration and temperature were stable as the surgery goes on. Four knitted mittens now adorn her chubby feet (again a huge and heartfelt thank you to anyone reading this who got busy with their needles!) - although it was so sad to see the impact of wild capture on this poor bear as we noticed a snare wound around her front left paw and two toes missing.
And we know, Miracle has earned her name. A bile farm victim - possibly for years - until the facility was closed down and the farmer hit upon the idea of fattening her up to sell her meat on the black market of Vietnam. Snatched in time from her fate, a very large Miracle arrived with us a few weeks ago weighing nearly 170 humongous kilos; quite a difference from the trimmer 150kgs of today - although, it has to be said, still with a slightly wobbly backside!
Two hours later as the surgery goes on we can already see the impact of her treatment on the farm. Years of perpetual stabbing of her gall bladder with unsterile needles to extract the bile has seen this organ now obscenely stuck to the liver, entailing patient dissecting by Jen and her team. Heather, our Senior Vet has come in from China to lend a hand and, together the two of them try to forget aching backs and limbs as the surgery continues for hours into the afternoon.
5pm and, all safe and sewn up, Miracle is gently given a reversal and slowly woken up to recover. Jen and the team now in desperate need of a coffee can be proud that, thanks to them, our first bear on the table has sailed through - innocently unaware of what she has just contributed to our work. Namely, whether in China or now Vietnam, there is no humane or acceptable method to extract bile from a bear - and bear farming MUST end.
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There have been some incredible "people" stories coming out of the Chengdu earthquake. People crawling out of flattened buildings, or buried in rubble for days, sometimes over a week, and found still alive.
Here on site in Chengdu three very lucky dogs are celebrating their own success stories. The first one was fortunate enough to find the only animal welfare group helping survivors on a remote mountain in Anxian after he'd walked downhill for hours from devastated villages at the summit.
Finding a makeshift leash and leading him down the mountain to our coach for the journey home we smiled at how readily he joined his new family, as if he'd been with us for years.
One day, when the time is right, we'll do a story to circulate to the media in the region where he was found to see if this dog, who we've now named Tremor, has a family that wants to take him back.
Meanwhile this confident little guy has been living the high life ever since arriving at our bear sanctuary. He "shares" vet nurse Caroline Nelson and I taking turns in sleeping in our rooms.
Caz does a brilliant job feeding (and spoiling) him while I'm away and only complains a little now that I bribe her with cookies and take him off her hands for a few days on my return.
For a little peek at Tremor (and one of our other vet nurses Hayley feeding him on the mountain), here's a lovely story highlighting Animals Asia's rescue of dogs from the earthquake zone. Zootoo.com is based in New Jersey, US, and is now broadcasting this film, which also features our own China Relations Director, Christie Yang, talking about our work.
http://www.zootoo.com/zootootv/v/petpulse742chinaquake2
Enjoy the film, and more soon on another of the world's luckiest dogs - gorgeous Richter.
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The wheels continue to grind frustratingly slowly in Vietnam. Eighty bears currently held illegally on farms in Ha Long Bay and originally slated for rescue into our care are now entwined in a complicated mess of Government intervention and delays.
This has all come about from a decision by the Central Government, which has recently decentralised wildlife enforcement, and given authority to the provinces to deal with violations of the laws.
The fact is that they are now going against the country’s own legislation and, for that reason, Animals Asia is determined to see justice for these 80 bears and so many others held illegally on farms across the country. We are not without powerful allies in our fight - and enjoy the support of National Assembly legislators, the media, other non-government groups, wildlife associations and legal experts.
The full update behind the original discovery of these bears in September 2007 to their plight today can be found in our fact sheet here:
There is, however some positive news. Following the relentless efforts of our own Vietnam Director Tuan Bendixsen, it seems we have a breakthrough that is seeing the Government now keen to come back to the table and talk through new options with Animals Asia. Tuan and I are due to meet with the officials soon and, although this may take a few weeks to sort through, we will not give up on these 80 farmed bears and remain hopeful that we will eventually see them at our rescue centre in Tam Dao.
Meanwhile, we now have a family of 13 bears on site on the buffer zone of beautiful Tam Dao National Park - all doing wonderfully well.
Cubs Mara, Mausi and Olly rescued last year weighing in at 2kgs each are now topping the 50kg mark! Still adorable and now gloriously resembling bears in miniature (“mini moon bears”!), their health and characters are flourishing. It has to be said however, that they think they run the sanctuary - if not the country of Vietnam - and in fact they pretty much do have our fabulous staff wrapped around their paws! They were later joined by another cub, Mischa, and then Marmite, who both fitted in well with them, making quite a gang.
More good news - we now have two more tiny cubs, nicknamed Snippy and Goblin, weighing in at 5.8kgs and 6.5kgs respectively.
Here's Snippy on the left and Goblin on the right enjoying some fresh leaves:
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They were confiscated from a bear farm on 24 June. Once again our fabulous vet nurses, Candice and Fiona are running ragged looking after them, but of course loving every minute.
Here's little Snippy with his favourite toy:
And Goblin, looking oh so cute!
And another one of Snippy:
We’ll do a full summary on these babies soon as they continue to recover from their horrible ordeal of wild capture and the terror of life on a farm.
Luckily, adults Miracle, Marvin, Lexi and Little Jane are all settling in well. Miracle has earned her name well – having narrowly escaped slaughter after the bear farm where she was caged closed down and the farmer was fattening her up to sell as meat. A sweetheart of a bear, she is still very much a chunky monkey and remains on a slow and steady diet to reduce her weight back down to that of a normal bear.
Now safe and sound all of these lucky bears are seeing quite a different destiny to that intended – happy, well fed and enriched and never to wake again with fear in their hearts.
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