The Vietnamese authorities have agreed that farms in Halong Bay have broken bear-keeping regulations, potentially paving the way for some of the bears to be rescued.

A report by Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) details how nine moon bears are being kept in conditions that contravene regulations.

According to the law, the nine bears should now be retrieved by government as the state remains the sole legal owner of all captive moon bears in Vietnam.

If the bears were to be retrieved by the authorities, the most likely outcome would be for the bears to be transferred to Animals Asia’s nearby bear rescue centre.

However, the fate of the bears remains in the balance as the report will now be given to the Prime Minister who will decide the ultimate course of action.

Animals Asia’s Vietnam Director Tuan Bendixsen said:

“Animals Asia remains absolutely committed to rescuing the surviving bears in Halong Bay, but we cannot act without the permission of government.

“MARD’s report claims that only nine of the 19 bears are kept in conditions which contravene Vietnam’s bear-keeping laws. This is hard to believe seeing as so many of the bears have already starved to death. Incredibly, regulations do not specify how much food the animals must be given each day.

“Now we must push for these nine bears to be transferred to our sanctuary, and hope that we can then go on to convince the authorities that the rest of the bears should follow.”

In late November 2014, Animals Asia inspected 49 bears held in captivity in the Halong Bay area and reported that many were suffering from malnutrition, open wounds and missing limbs.

Since then 30 of the animals have died, leaving just 19 alive in the region.

With bear keepers publicly claiming they can no longer care for the bears or even feed them sufficiently, Animals Asia has been pleading with authorities to be allowed to bring the animals to their award-winning sanctuary in Tam Dao.

To date, more than 100,000 people around the world have signed a petition asking the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to save the bears. They have been joined by 12 international ambassadors and celebrities including Judi Dench, Stephen Fry and Ricky Gervais.

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