Following the sad blogs on Vietnam over the past few days, it’s such a delight to let you know some good news coming out of Hanoi this week. Just recently our brilliant Vietnam team received clearance from the Hanoi government to transfer four bears to our sanctuary in Tam Dao.
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As Morgan in our US office said when she sent me this lovely letter, along with a donation, “This is just too cute not to share.” It was sent in by Raoul Di Blasi of Kingston, Pennsylvania in reply to our gorgeous Woodley's Letter to Santa.
Prior to the seminar on bear farming at the European Parliament in Brussels, Dave, Toby, our Chinese Government friends and I met with Neil Parish MP at the Houses of Parliament in London.
The end of Virginia’s journey in Vietnam saw her spending the day with our vet team as Kirsty and Caroline spent hours in the surgery removing both upper canines, which were badly broken, exposing the pulp, from a bear called Halong. Virginia was absolutely mesmerised with the procedure and gently held Halong’s paw as Caroline monitored the anaesthetic, and Kirsty concentrated on removing his poor damaged teeth.
Early the next morning Virginia, Tuan, Chinh, The and I headed off to the bear farms of Phung Thoung Village near Hanoi. The first farm saw us being politely invited to drink tea by the owner, Ms Loc, before she showed us the bears. Kind as the offer was, it was of course the last thing we wanted to do and the small talk that ensued could hardly disguise the nervousness we felt in anticipation of soon meeting the caged bears.
"The Times" calls it "nasty, naughty fun" and indeed I know that this year's UK pantomime presentation of Roald Dahl's "George's Marvellous Medicine" on Monday 20th December is going to be a brilliant fun-filled night.
Billed as fizztickling fun and wizzpopping magic, the panto sees our incredibly generous friends at the Birmingham Stage Company putting on another Christmas panto for Animals Asia, where all proceeds will go to our beautiful bears in China and Vietnam.
Support within the European Parliament for an end to bear farming in Asia continues to grow with over 50 MEPs, representing 13 European countries, supporting a European Parliament seminar: “Bear farming, animal cruelty and the development of animal protection in China”.
It was early November and there she was sitting in the Hong Kong departure lounge by the gate for Hanoi. Virginia McKenna had just flown in overnight from London but looked fresh as a daisy and was raring to go. We were leaving for Vietnam where we were to meet up with Tuan our Vietnam Director and team, and join freelance journalist Simon Parry who was doing a story about the farmed bears.
How much I'll miss him – but how thrilled that he’s gone to his forever home in the UK. I am of course talking about our beautiful Tremor – a dog we rescued in May 2008 during the horrible, devastating earthquake of Chengdu. A dog who has been such a big part of the lives of all of our staff in China, and particularly Caroline, our vet nurse, and myself, who shared (and adored) him on site.
What a time we had – Dave (who co-presented with me at the evening shows), Gill, Nicky, Lara, Sue, Elaine and Fiona and our amazing support groups across the country - as our Roadshow swung into action this year.
Jill's Bio
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.
Read more here.
