Love and thanks from the heart from the bears, dogs, cats and people who have had the utmost privilege to know and work with Annie Ditton, our amazing volunteer who gave up six months of her life to live and work on site with us in Chengdu.
“Danny has hobbies: being stroked, car watching and smelling feet”. And so goes a verse in the poem “A Day in the Life of Danny the Cat” by celebrity poet Benjamin Zephaniah who came to see us on site in Chengdu this week.
As we celebrate the year of the Tiger, it’s ironic to see such hideous treatment of this endangered New Year icon in China’s safari parks and zoos.
Who would have thought our teeny tiny Jingle could have grown up so fast. Rescued in Chengdu towards the end of 2009, our "baby" of the family is now weighing in at an incredible 50kgs (give or take a few grams).
Our volunteers are literally everything to the bears (and dogs and cats) at our sanctuaries in Chengdu and Vietnam. Over the years, we’ve had some absolutely fabulous help from passionate people who are willing to give up three months of their lives and step into the great unknown. They work for nothing except for meals and board, and of course lots of “food for the soul” from the resident animals we house.
A message sent to the team Sunday morning with the tragic news that Tiger had lost his fight for life....
On the eve of the Lunar New Year, we received the most beautiful message from Bear Manager Belinda in Vietnam... announcing the news that one of our new arrivals, Italia, had given birth to a little male cub. As Belinda explains:
Our Senior Education Officer in Chengdu, Jacky Yuan, sent such a lovely message to all the staff that I wanted to share it with you. (I know Jacky won’t mind):
Pinch me. Because surely I must be dreaming. This morning's event in the centre of downtown Chengdu will go down in the Animals Asia history as another turning point in our campaign to end bear farming in China.
The internet keeps us in touch with the world of the present and that of the past. Just recently, Mary Alice in the UK sent me the link to a website called Earth Protect, that brought back the memories of smiles and tears for the life of Andrew and so many bears we have loved and lost.
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.
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