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Pat yourselves on the back our amazing UK team because you deserve every accolade going! The roadshow was a fun-filled, fund-raising, emotional roller-coaster from start to finish and we wouldn’t have missed it for the world. So fabulous to meet up again with old friends and supporters and to gain new advocates for programmes that we were proud to be able to speak about in person to audiences across the country.
My long-time friend and mentor, beautiful Virginia McKenna, founder of the Born Free Foundation, summed it up at the last event in London when she said that mountains were being moved - and it is solely because of the help and passion of people like you reading this message that the first steps in climbing what at first seemed insurmountable mountains have been achieved.
Now back in Chengdu catching up with the bears, these past three weeks have sped past. Twelve presentations in just over two weeks with Dave, Nicky, Gill, Lara and Fiona working their socks off to make them such a success. Fabulous auction prizes with some bids leaving us speechless and wondering if the hammer would ever come down. Celebrities at many events and the most amazing vegetarian and vegan food at Chinese restaurants where almost all the events were staged.
Christie Yang, our China Relations Director, and I left the UK last week tired, but very happy indeed and looking forward to the next roadshow there!
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I’m so sad to have to bring you the news that Bossham, who was among the 28 moon bears rescued on 31 March, has died. This brings to 13 the total number of bears from that group that have succumbed to ailments caused by their appalling treatment on the farms. Bossham was a brave and beautiful bear with a glorious temperament despite his disabilities; he was so much loved by us all.
Dr Kati Loeffler, our Veterinary Consultant, was with this brave boy at the end. This is Kati’s account of his last few weeks:
“Bossham joined the AAF family on 31 March this year in a group of the sickest bears that AAF has ever been able to rescue from bear bile farms. He was a large, beautiful, gentle-mannered bear, suffering quietly in a cage into which he had been crammed like clothes into a suitcase.
Once we pulled him out of his bear farm cage and he woke in his new spacious quarters, it became evident that something was badly wrong with his hind limbs. He could not use them. At first it seemed that he could not move them at all. But with encouragement, assistance, and tireless veterinary care from the staff at the Moon Bear Rescue Centre, he gradually gained the ability to move his limbs, then to roll himself onto his chest and to sit up.
In the last few weeks he was even able to stand for brief periods of time. He loved his food and ate voraciously, desperately, as though every meal would be his last. It is one of the greatest pleasures to be able to work with these bears as they slowly begin to trust and learn to relinquish the fear of starvation and pain with which they had lived all of their lives before Animals Asia. We so looked forward to Bossham's journey into trust.
Then suddenly 10 days ago he suffered a seizure. He responded well to the emergency veterinary treatment and within a day appeared back to his normal self, progressing steadily toward wellness. And then this morning (30 June) we found him dead.
He died of a massively distended stomach, which stretched literally to breaking point and caused the collapse of his circulatory system. The cause of this and whether it was related to the cause of the seizure is difficult to know. But Bossham was now the third bear in that March 31 group with such a condition. The first one died on the surgery table; the second, Poodley/Haribo, was able to be saved.
And yet prior to these three bears, only one of nearly 200 bears were bloated like this. One must wonder if there was something on the farm from which these bears came – in the food, a toxin, something causing damage to the normal function of the intestines – that predisposed them to such an agonising death.
Rest in peace Bossham.”
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And some more good news from China. Suki Deng, our Dr Dog coordinator in Chengdu and Rainbow recently took some of our lovely canine doctors and their volunteer owners to visit more than 40 primary school children made homeless by the Sichuan earthquake.
The children from some of the worst-hit areas like Yingxiu and Beichuan, are now temporarily settled in an elderly home in Xin Fan, Longqiao but have obviously been through a sad and traumatic time. The dogs provided some perfect fun-filled therapy at a time when they needed it the most and Suki sent some lovely photos of the visit that I thought you’d like to see.
From the beaming smiles on their faces, the children obviously had a wonderful time and so did the little pug, Dr Bi Bi, who clearly enjoyed being the centre of attention and “sitting” while the children drew his portrait.
The girl above is 10-year-old Zhou Xiao Yan from Yinxiu. Her family home collapsed in the earthquake and she also lost her uncle in the disaster.
Two of our Dr Dog volunteers brought along two big boxes of stationery of all kinds, and some delicious cakes for the children. There was also enough stationery left over to distribute some to other children who weren’t able to make the visit.
The little girl below in the pink T-shirt (front row, far left) is 7-year-old Wu Yi from Dujiangyan. She was buried in the rubble for hours. She struggled to remove the bricks covering her body and finally made her way out, traumatised, but alive.
Rainbow says that at the end of the visit, when all the children shouted “Xie xie ni!” (Thank you!) at the top of their lungs, it felt like another aftershock had hit Sichuan!
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Christie and I are now nearing the end of our UK Roadshow. It’s been exhausting, but wonderful and I’ll update you about it soon.
Just quickly, I wanted to share with you some good news I’ve received from our lovely vet nurse Hayley in Chengdu. You’ll remember the little white dog called “Tudo” (Potato in Chinese) that featured in my 6 June post. Tudo had saved his owner’s life the day of the massive earthquake by snapping at his legs and running outside. His owner, an old man, followed Tudo and was safely outside when his house collapsed. This sweet old man had been hiding Tudo in his tent, but could no longer feed him properly so had brought him to us to care for him.
Well now they have been reunited. This was Hayley’s message:
Tudo’s family went to the dog rescue centre initially to pick him up but were told he was at the bear rescue centre with us. They drove straight over and were reunited just outside the rehab enclosure. Four of the family came to collect him and their faces broke into huge smiles when they saw him. Tudo recognised them immediately and ran over, dancing in circles at their feet until they bent down to stroke him whereby he just ran from one to the other wriggling in complete excitement. He was over the moon to see them again. It did bring a tear to my eye!
Such a sweet sight. They thanked us very much for taking good care of him and explained that now they have a new apartment they can take him home. They then repeated the story of how he had saved the life of their uncle by pulling at his trouser leg until he was out of his house and then 10 seconds later the earthquake struck, collapsing his house.
While with us, Tudo was a well behaved little dog and got on well with the other earthquake victims who are also waiting for their owners to collect them.
Here is a pic of Tudo (at the back) with our volunteer, Chris, at the Moon Bear Rescue Centre.
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Hayley had some more good news too:
Another little rescue story is of Yoda - named because of her big ears. She was rescued from one of the shut down pet shops and was found to have a broken front leg that hadn't healed properly.
She stayed with us while it mended and has now been homed with one of our kitchen girls, who has had her for three days. She says Yoda has settled in well, gets on with all of her family, especially her 11-year-old daughter. Their summary of her? Cute!
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