Trapped inside a cage barely bigger than your body. Standing, sitting and lying in your own excrement. Having to fight for a share of what little food and water there is.
When Dick arrived, he was emaciated – weighing a sickly 96.5kg. Several hundred kilos of fruit and veggies later and he tips the scales at a whopping 198kg, making him nearly the largest bear at the China sanctuary.
They spent decades in tiny cages on bear bile farms before they were rescued – now these bears trust their carers so much, they’ll willingly step back into a cage.
When New Yorker Kai Madden is wearing a sodden and muddy bear suit and taking a second, third and fourth run at a steep wall – his mind is with 10,000 bears caged in China by bear bile farms.
Animal welfare charity Animals Asia has ended bear bile farming in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam after rescuing an unprecedented 33 bears in 6 months.
What I am about to write is so obvious that it shouldn’t need reiterating. But I’ll say it and next time you read someone arguing that their blood lust is actually an act of conservation you can respond accordingly.
He lost his mother as a cub and was sold by the hunter who killed her – and was destined to fall victim to the live animal trade until he was rescued by Vietnam’s Forest Protection Department.
Today bear bile farming ends in Quang Ninh, Vietnam – as animal welfare charity Animals Asia rescues the last bear in the province and closes the last bile farm.