Super special and oozing with tender loving care, every single one – you know who you are – and we have loved having you all staying with us on site. Several “vollies” have even returned twice – including Emily, Judy and Diana – and now our Annie.
Annie first came to us on a visit after she won a competition in Woman’s Day magazine in Australia to name a bear. She chose “Mani” and we chose “Rosie” (who only had a nickname) as the honoured recipient of this new name, which is part of a Buddhist mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum” and means “jewel in the lotus”.
Hands up we find it quite hard to remember Rosie’s new name sometimes – but Annie always gives a little tut, and beams her lovely smile, which says she forgives us once again. Here's lovely Mani enjoying a good roll in the grass:
Annie arrived back last October for her second stint which was meant to last only until December. However, learning that we were short of volunteers, she then very generously volunteered for another three months and has thrown herself into bear and dog work alike.
During the run-up to both Christmas and Chinese New Year, Annie worked quietly at night behind the scenes to give our bears a holiday treat – in the form of what Rainbow calls “Dinosaur eggs”. In fact they are gorgeous, big paper mache balls painted with bright red and yellow non-toxic paint and filled with treats that the bears have to “work” to break open and devour the goodies inside.
Laid out in the enclosures this month just days before welcoming the Year of the Tiger, Annie’s creation looked fabulous (especially as she had painted Happy Chinese New Year in both Chinese and English!) and the bears couldn’t wait to destroy and enjoy them. Here in her own words Annie explains how she came up with this brilliant form of enrichment:
“What idea could I come up with to help the bears celebrate Chinese New Year? Twenty five years experience of teaching craft to primary school children came to the rescue and I launched into paper mache production.
The result was 21 hollow ball shapes hiding dried fruit as special treats for special bears. Painted bright red with Chinese New Year greetings, the treat balls were ripped apart by the bears to reveal the hidden goodies which were then eagerly eaten. It was fun to make the treat balls but even more fun to see how they helped enrich the bears’ lives.”
This contented, red-nosed recipient showed just how much the balls were appreciated!
Annie also gives wonderful presentations of her life with the bears when she returns home to Australia - and one such presentation at the Forster Public School saw teacher Lindy Nixon and her students responding with wonderful art work and poetry which they sent to the sanctuary for display in our Education Room on site.
Way to go Annie – a big bear sized hug and xie xie ni (thank you) to you and all of our volunteer family over the years who have brought sunshine into the lives of our animals on site.
And this from Senior Bear Manager Nic’s weekly bear report about how much of a "gem" Annie is .... :-)
“Annie is busy with shake making, dog walking, hospital bear husbandry, some administrative work and observations on Jingle bear. She has been a little diamond.”
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A message sent to the team Sunday morning with the tragic news that Tiger had lost his fight for life....
Hello everyone, no words to let you know that Tiger passed away a few minutes ago. Kirsty had emailed Heather and I first thing this morning to say that he'd had a bad night – with laboured breathing and refusing to suckle. But, acknowledging that he was a good colour, passing urine and faeces, and moving around, both she and Belinda were up all night giving him oxygen, electrolytes and antibiotics. Sadly, he continued to grow worse, with breathing becoming more shallow, and died quietly just now.
Understandably they're in pieces, but no question that they did all they could to give our Tiger the best ever chance. The circumstances of his short life are the legacy of a trade that has no conscience – and a shame on every bear farmer in Asia.
Please join me in sending commiserations to all in our amazing Vietnam team – especially Belinda – who has had next to no sleep for over a week. She has raised literally hundreds of young mammals and they could not have been in safer or more caring hands.
RIP little Tiger from a family who loved you. x
The following message from Belinda’s husband, Russel, reduced me to tears - as did the pictures of Tiger's final goodbye. What perfect moon bear crescent he had - and what a tragedy that his strong heart stopped beating beneath it.
It is with a heavy heart, that I send out these final photos of precious little Tiger. It has been mentioned several times already and I'll repeat it once more. This little guy had all the heart and fight of a tiger with the strength of a bear. Anyone who would have had the privilege of meeting him would have been astonished with the strength of his little frame.
We've just come from his funeral and I can confidently say that spirits here have never been lower. Although the Bear workers weren't involved in his direct care, they all visited the window regularly and even the security guards took a keen interest asking every day how he was. As it’s been mentioned before, this little guy had no clue of the buzz going on because of him, but I find it absolutely amazing the way this tiny little creature has affected so many people.
From the beginning of his short life there had been some question as to whether mom should have him, or whether a surrogate should take him on. And now that he has passed it is natural to second guess everything that has happened over the past six days, and ask whether we did the right things. But I can confidently say, after spending the last week at Belinda's side. Even Italia would have been happy with expert care given by Belinda's experienced and gentle hands. Please keep her in your thoughts, as now she is the second mother to lose this cub.
To sum up. This beautiful little bear has lost his fight and left us all broken hearted. Dropped in our hands on the eve of a New Year and challenging even the best animal caregiver. This little guy was a gem that no longer has a sparkle but will be remembered as the fighting "Tiger" that we never got to know.
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On the eve of the Lunar New Year, we received the most beautiful message from Bear Manager Belinda in Vietnam... announcing the news that one of our new arrivals, Italia, had given birth to a little male cub. As Belinda explains:
"He was born during the night last night (Italia is his mom), and found very cold and crying this morning (Sat, 13 Feb). I warmed him up, and then a little later offered him some milk formula, which he happily accepted. What a relief.
He has continued to eat well throughout the day, and poos, wees, and fusses just like a baby should. He has a few injuries, most notably that his ears were bitten off, but everything has been cleaned up, and is expected to heal well."
Kirsty (below left), Belinda (right) and team are now looking after the little cub literally around the clock. Not surprisingly, given that he was born at the start of the Lunar New Year, our new cub is now called "Tiger".
KirstyOfficerBelindaBordelon_14Feb2010.jpg)
Mum is also doing well, curled up in a nest of straw and eating the treats offered. As a new mother, and with limited space in the recovery cage, it seems that Italia possibly accidentally nipped off her cub's ears while trying to give birth. Also, as a wild-caught bear, then caged, farmed and finally recently rescued into a new safe, but strange, environment - and considering she is a first-time mum and lack of appropriate rearing area, the little cub will be hand-reared away from his mother.
Little Tiger is most definitely not home and dry by a long chalk - but if our Vietnam team's previous cub-rearing skills are anything to go by, he most certainly has the very best chance.
Now we also know that the bear farmer was lying about how long he had kept her (according to the Taiwanese owner, the bears had been kept for six to seven years in concrete cells at the Binh Duong city headquarters of his company before being housed in separate compartments in cargo containers).
Clearly she has been recently wild-caught, which also explains her preference for leaves and "browse" when offered food, and her pregnancy now explains her somewhat unusual behaviour after arriving with us from the farm.
Keep the prayers coming - Tiger still has a long way to go, but is fighting for survival in the true style of his namesake.
For more, please see our Rescue Diary.
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Our Senior Education Officer in Chengdu, Jacky Yuan, sent such a lovely message to all the staff that I wanted to share it with you. (I know Jacky won’t mind):
Dear all: I make a sweet dream for our team and bears!
Moonbear's wish: Everybody in Animals Asia will be happy in 2010,
Chinese Tiger Year will bless all the moonbears get free! :-)
..........to one and all, with thanks and love for another year of progress and passion, and ever more animals in Asia given sanctuary and hope. Happy Lunar New Year! Jillx
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Pinch me. Because surely I must be dreaming. This morning's event in the centre of downtown Chengdu will go down in the Animals Asia history as another turning point in our campaign to end bear farming in China.
As a new initiative in our Healing without Harm campaign, Susan had done an incredible job of convincing 33 Chinese medicine shops to throw away their entire stock of bear bile products and pledge that they would never again prescribe or sell anything to do with bears.
Coinciding with the death of our beautiful Andrew on 9th February 2006, there was no doubt who our poster boy should be – his image shining out from the pharmacy windows on posters and stickers that carried slogans in Chinese making the owners’ feelings clear:
"We don't sell bear bile products."
"More than 10,000 bears are suffering because of bile extraction. Many have chronic gall bladder disease and liver cancer."
"You don't need bear bile products. And, they threaten your health."
"Please don't buy any bear bile products!"
Launching this initiative at Dahua Pharmacy, our staff made themselves busy from early morning putting up the posters and a huge backdrop, and placing stickers on the shop doors and on the counters selling the drugs.
Shop owner, Mdm Cui kindly let us place two large jars containing livers from the bears we have loved and lost - one "normal" and one diseased so that people could clearly see that bear farming was killing the bears – and potentially killing consumers of bear bile too. The media crowded around and took notes as Rainbow and I asked who in their right mind would take a such a substance from animals dying in agony with their organs rotting away?
Students from Chengdu Traditional Chinese Medicine University and Chengdu 9th Middle School, and volunteers from a local dog and cat shelter "Loving Homes" chanted and held slogans and placards high in front of the local media, and the crowd of interested onlookers grew.
At one point, it seemed as if we were going to be told by the police to leave. Apparently the Mayor of Chengdu was due to do his rounds of the city in preparation for Chinese New Year and it was felt that a demonstration would be seen in a negative light. Incredibly, they relented (as we had permission to be in the street) and with smiling faces told us "we know what you do" and gave us the thumbs up!
The finale came as the shop owners and Animals Asia staff piled the bear bile products high in a round metal container – and set the whole lot alight. The flames billowed up into the Chengdu sky as the media filmed and took photographs, and the products turned to dust. One elderly lady was heard to say it was exactly what should happen to bear bile and the atmosphere was electric as everyone clapped and cheered.
Our own life-size bear, Moonie (once again superbly played by Jacky in a moon bear suit) enchanted the public and had his picture taken in front of Franzi tiny cage, which had Caesar's full-metal jacket balanced on top.
The students proudly held high more placards, including one that featured a famous Chinese cartoonist Heibei and which announced:
Cow gallstones banned – we're still alive!
Tiger bone banned – we're still alive!
If bear bile was banned – we'd still be alive!
Mdm Cui faced the cameras and showed the intelligence and compassion of her peers when she said: "As traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and entrepreneurs, we should all do our part and stop selling bear bile products. I hope that more and more drug stores join us and help to end bear farming."
And then it was on to the next location – Chengdu Super Pharmacy – for a repeat of all the above. The walk there was memorable too – a group of dedicated, determined people with one pure motive and all shouting out slogans as we walked. The traffic stopped, people took photographs with their cell phones and I just wanted to burst with pride.
At the pharmacy, one final addition in memory of Andrew was added to the event. During the burning of the bile products we threw in a symbolic cardboard bear cage made last night by Rainbow's wife Hong Chuan and repeated our promise, together, never to give up until bear farming ends. This final act saw Andrew's beautiful face looking down at us from the posters and reminded us of the lines of our poem, Spirit of Hope:
"Please look upon the others and give them promise of hope soon, and
tell them to be patient, and proudly wear the moon."
And our dream for China 2010 – that more bears will have sanctuary where they truly belong – in the wild.
For more on our launch, and some great photos, please see here.
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