My trip back to China began with the taxi driver saying, "are you serious about going to Chengdu?" Quickly followed by "you know there's just been an earthquake there too!"... and my heart sank. Throughout these past two decades of our bear sanctuary operation we have seen multiple earthquakes (the first that tragically killed over 90,000 people in our province of Sichuan), flooding, a fire, and SARS. Luckily, while recorded as 5.2 on the
At the same time, our amazing China team had also been up late wrapping presents and getting creative for the bears.
The excitement had been brewing for quite some time – well, it's the most fun and festive of all seasons, and both staff and bears could tell that something wonderful was in the air.
Sometimes when you meet someone you just get a shiver of recognition, knowing you have just met a soul mate for life. And so it was when I met actress Lesley Nicol of “Downton Abbey” after she had been introduced to us by our mutual friend and UK Ambassador Peter Egan at an event in London. In the same way as I already felt about Peter, it was like I already knew her and we simply clicked... as friends, but also as people who knew we had a
We’ve convinced the Vietnamese authorities to end bear bile farming, now we need the world to stand together to make it happen.
Thoughtless adherence to a tradition of animal sacrifice is blinding modern Hong Kong to the simple truth that animal lives deserve our respect.
Tomb Sweeping Day is a chance to pay our respects to lost friends and for their stories to continue being told.
The Dumbo movie may well have an animal welfare message, but in malls around the world that message is stripped away and we’re left with elephants dressed up for entertainment.
As the new year dawns, and snow coats our China sanctuary, hope builds for nearly 800 bears holding on for rescue in Vietnam.
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.
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