Last year Animals Asia broke ground on our second bear sanctuary in the beautiful mountainous region of Bach Ma, which will be home to the last 300 bears who remain on bile farms in Vietnam. After decades of campaigning and rescuing bears, the image of what Vietnam will look like without bear bile farming is at last coming into focus.

Let’s take a look at where we are with the construction of the sanctuary that will signal the end of bear bile farming in Vietnam forever.

A slow, damp start

After breaking ground, we were keen to start building as soon as possible. However, as soon as we began, we had to down tools due to an unforeseen barrage of rain.

The construction workers donned ponchos and tried to continue working, but there was so much surface water it made it impossible to lay foundations or build walls. They even tried to catch up by working at night, but even when the rain stopped for a while, operating heavy machinery in the dark brought its own issues and challenges. We had no option but to wait until the rain stopped.

Construction begins in earnest 

As soon as the skies cleared, our construction team got straight back to work and before long, they’d started to erect the most important buildings and prepare the site for the bear enclosures.

Step by step, phase by phase

The sanctuary will be built in three stages: Stage One will comprise two double bear houses with four enclosures, quarantine area, vet hospital, bear care building, bear management office, and all essential supplies such as power and waste.

At the time of going to print, we are well underway with stage one and as soon as the quarantine area becomes habitable, which we hope to achieve by August this year, we can begin rescuing bears to Bach Ma. 

Bringing the last bears home

We are desperate to complete construction as soon as possible because, while we’re building, those 300 bears are still languishing on bile farms across the country. They don’t know we’re coming for them. They can’t understand that help is on the way, that as soon as humanly possible we will be rushing to their side to bring them to a place they could only have ever dreamed of.

So we are going as fast as we can, but we still have so much to do. 

We and the bears still need your help. Please, will you help us build the second and third part of our new sanctuary, so we can go and get those last, desperate bears before it’s too late?

The sooner we build the sanctuary, the sooner these bears can live out the rest of their days just as the 680 bears we’ve rescued before them have: surrounded by friends, lush surroundings, and an endless supply of love.

Read more:

Breaking ground on our new bear sanctuary in Vietnam 
The vets healing the last bears on bile farms in Vietnam

BACK