Following on from my last blog, we now have the results of a poll on dog and cat eating that we ran on our World Animal Day China-wide photo contest website (Tencent microblog). While we're guessing that most of the respondents are cat and dog lovers, it's heartening to see a shift in attitudes, particularly among those who had previously eaten dog and cat meat.
Since 2006 we’ve proudly been celebrating World Animal Day in Hong Kong and mainland China — and each year sees a massive growth in the number of people who are passionately relaying the theme that dogs and cats are our friends, not food.
As a bemused Ki looked on from the top of the climbing frame, Prince played the fool below. This rather, ahem, cumbersome bear lounged around on the swing showing off to his lady friend above, until the rope could stand it no more and broke with a loud snap, sending Prince and the swing sprawling to the ground.
Turning the blog over to our UK Director Gill Maltby today, with masses and masses of congratulations for the most amazing feat that she and the team achieved the other weekend in a gruelling - and very wet - mountain trek to the summit of Snowdon.
Fiona in our UK office has come up trumps with a fabulous idea for helping our projects and animals in Asia!
Our fabulous volunteer Annie Ditton has done it again and made our bears smile! Annie, who's over in Chengdu volunteering for the third time was recently joined by her two sisters and, together, they generously bought a watermelon each for the bears.
....And another fabulous pic by Annie, who took on the challenge of capturing our beautiful To Zhai's amazing smile. Many of you may remember that it was this smile that saved To Zhai's life when Irene, Carrot and I (together with kind volunteers Loka and Todd) rescued her from the horrible meat market in southern China.
Our annual summer camps just get better and better — and this year’s was particularly special as it had all attendees thinking “outside of the box” and brainstorming how bear farming can end.
The pictures and YouTube film can’t possibly replicate the evening featuring Bands for Bears in Sydney last week. Organised by the most incredible musician on the planet, Peter Northcote and his manager the lovely Tanti, the evening rocked for nearly five amazing hours. Twenty-six of Sydney’s most talented musicians joined together for a sell-out event highlighting the suffering of caged and farmed bears across Asia — and celebrating freedom for those lucky enough to have been rescued in China and Vietnam. These talented people put on a world-class show that you would normally see at places like Madison Square Garden — and the venue, Notes, just rocked.
It's always super to hear from staff who have left Animals Asia for pastures new — and to smile at the fond memories of life on site in China or Vietnam. Our former vet nurse, Hayley, recently read all about Rainbow's amazing "journey" in Hawaii on my blog and decided that she'd like to write something too. Obviously I jumped at the chance to feature this update and to send a big hello to Hayley from us all, and to say how much we miss you too.
Jill founded Animals Asia in 1998, after an encounter with a caged bear on a farm in China changed her life forever. She now heads a team of over 300 enthusiastic staff and divides her time between our bear rescue centres in China and Vietnam and our Hong Kong head office. She travels extensively to participate in conferences and speak at fundraising events.
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