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| Jill's Christmas message |
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A warm and happy festive season to you and your loved ones from all in the Animals Asia team. And, especially, we'd like to send a huge and heartfelt "thank you" on behalf of all the animals your kind donations have helped over the past 12 months. Bear-sized thanks too to those of you who have already responded to our Christmas appeal and lovely Woodley's Letter to Santa. Because of you, we've been able to do some amazing work this year, including the closure of Shandong province's last bear farm, bringing to 20 (out of 31) the number of Mainland Chinese provinces that are now bear-farm free.
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| China zoos ordered to stop circus-style performances |
Two months after Animals Asia released a damning report on the cruelty of wild-animal performances in Chinese zoos and safari parks, the Chinese government’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development ordered zoos to end the use of animals in abusive performances. The directive, issued on 26 October 2010, also calls on zoos to improve the living conditions of their captive animals. Please see the full story here.
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| Honour for our bear sanctuaries – and for our Jill! |
This December, Animals Asia Foundation was awarded the 2010 Carole Noon Award for Sanctuary Excellence for both our Moon Bear Rescue Centres in China and Vietnam. The prestigious awards were presented to Jill by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries at a ceremony held at our Chengdu sanctuary. Please see here for the full story.
Also, in September Jill was recognised for her work through a special award given to foreigners who have enriched life in China through their contributions to business, education, medical care, disaster relief or environmental protection. Jill was one of 12 recipients of the “You Bring Charm to China” awards at a ceremony held by Phoenix Satellite Television and Tianjin TV. Please see here for more. |
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| Survey shows traditional practitioners spurn bear bile |
A new survey by Animals Asia has found that 93 per cent of Vietnam's traditional medicine practitioners are opposed to bear bile farming and 76 per cent have never prescribed bear bile. More than 150 Vietnamese traditional medicine practitioners participated in the survey. Please see our press release for details.
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| New image for Animals Asia |
With the help of top-level marketers in Hong Kong who provided their services free of charge and after many months of internal discussions and consultations, we are proud to present our new logo, tagline and programme structure. We hope you like them. For details, please see here.
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| Education team spreading the message in four Chinese cities |
Over the past two months, our China education team has been working overtime, spreading the message of animal welfare and the plight of bears on bile farms in cities as far afield as Chengdu, Shanghai, Beijing and Xi’an. Our staff held more than 10 presentations in 10 schools and universities, including both Beijing and Shanghai Chinese Traditional Medicine Universities and Xian Foreign Language University. They also visited Shanghai Children's Hospital and, in Xian, hosted a presentation by Chinese superstar DJ Linbai that was attended by almost 3,000 students.
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| Bear rescue hits halfway mark with 350 bears saved |
Our mission to rescue a total of 700 bears from cruel bile farms in China and Vietnam reached the halfway mark in November with the rescue of four bears in Vietnam – two cubs and two adults, one of whom arrived with almost no fur and the other almost blind from untreated cataracts. In October, we rescued “Derick” an adult moon bear from a farm in Quang Ninh, Vietnam. To date, we have rescued 277 bears in China and closed down 43 farms. In Vietnam, this latest rescue brings to 73 the number of bears rescued there. Please read about our November rescue here.
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| Irene appointed China WAD Ambassador 2010 |
Animals Asia's China Dr Dog Manager, Irene Feng, who is driving our Cat and Dog Welfare programme, was appointed this year's World Animal Day Ambassador for the whole of China. This year, among other WAD activities held by Animals Asia, Irene organised our month-long "Sharing love with them" Online Photo Contest, involving 14 animal-welfare organisations around China.
Irene is based in the southern city of Guangzhou, known as China's cat and dog eating capital. She works extensively with the authorities and animal-welfare groups (both locally and throughout China) to bring about long-term change. Irene and her team are also spreading our messages far and wide to millions of Chinese bloggers and chatroom users. |
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| European Parliament seminar on bear farming |
Jill Robinson, Toby Zhang (Director of External Affairs) and David Neale (Animal Welfare Director), together with our Chinese government partners Mr Cao Liang, Madam Wang Xiaoting (China Wildlife Conservation Association), Mr Li Jianguo (Sichuan Forestry Department), and Mr Yu Changchun (Jilin Forestry Department) were honoured to speak at the European parliament seminar: "Bear farming, animal cruelty and the development of animal protection in China", hosted by Carl Schlyter MEP, Peter Skinner MEP and Eva-Britt Svensson MEP.
The seminar provided an opportunity to discuss progress towards ending bear farming in China, initiatives to end abusive animal performances in zoos and steps by provincial governments towards the humane management of dog populations. Read more here.
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| United Kingdom |
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| Join our China Trek, October 2011 |
If you're making a New Year's resolution to challenge yourself, to try something different, to have an adventure or to help the moon bears, this is your chance to combine all these things with our once-in-a-lifetime China challenge. You'll also get to visit your favourite bears at our Chengdu sanctuary. Find our more here.
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| Virginia McKenna visits our Vietnam sanctuary |
| At the beginning of November, our fabulous Patron, Virginia McKenna OBE, visited our Vietnam sanctuary in Tam Dao National Park. Virginia accompanied Jill and our Vietnam Director, Tuan Bendixsen, on visits to a bear farm and traditional medicine shops in Hanoi, where she was horrified to find bear bile openly on sale, despite bear bile farming being illegal in Vietnam. She also assisted in the health-check of Ha Long bear and met Born Free's very own bear — Grace. Please see more on Jill's Blog Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 for the full story of Virginia's visit. |
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| New UK director for Animals Asia |
Congratulations to Gill Maltby, who recently became our new UK Director. UK supporters will already know Gill, who has worked as a dedicated volunteer and employee with us for nine years. We’re sure you’ll be seeing more of her very soon.
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| Australia |
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| A dog's day out in Sydney |
The inaugural Dogcember event held by The Barracks Vet Clinic in Sydney in December was a fantastic day out for dogs — and their owners. With over 20 stalls, a Santa Paws photo booth and our own Ambassador, Simon Bryant (of ABC's "The Cook and the Chef") on the barbie, pooches and people enjoyed themselves immensely while raising funds for Animals Asia. Read the full story and download Simon's delicious veggie burger recipe here.
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| Rising to the challenge! |
A group of 17 supporters spent two weeks in China in September on the trip of a lifetime. Having raised more than $80,000 between them, they then endured seven days of serious trekking through some of China's most beautiful scenery as well as visiting some wonderful attractions like the largest stone Buddha in the world. The highlight of the trip for everyone was spending a whole day at the sanctuary with Animals Asia's founder Jill Robinson and meeting bears like Oliver (pictured) and Jasper. We plan to launch another trek in 2011 (departing 2012), so please stay tuned for details.
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| Hong Kong |
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| Your votes win HK$300,000 for Animals Asia |
A huge thanks to all of you who voted for our Dr Dog programme in the Li Ka Shing Foundation’s “Love Ideas” funding campaign, securing for this vital programme HK$300,000. Animals Asia was among 11 Hong Kong animal-welfare groups out of a total of 169 applicants that received funding through the campaign.
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