Jill's Blog

Little earthquake hero safe from cull

20 February 2009, 00:35AM |

Tuesday was Senior Bear Manager Nic's birthday - and the day of the big move. Brown bear Caesar and Tibetan browns Benji and Poupouce were being prepared to be transferred into their new specially designed enclosures which would cater to their different characteristics, compared with the moon bear type enclosures where they currently live. Substantially larger than the Asiatic black bears, Caesar, Benji and Poupouce have a propensity for digging - especially in the colder weather. Caesar, as you may have read in a previous blog, was a master at this and dug for China, often proudly surveying her "den" after an afternoon's work, which would fit six grown men.

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Major victory for dogs in Vietnam

19 February 2009, 00:16AM |

I’ll never forget filming dogs being slaughtered in a restaurant in Hanoi several years ago. For two long hours I silently cried on the inside, while making a pathetic attempt to look calm on the outside, so that the people slaughtering the dogs would really believe that I was writing a travel brochure on the delights of “exotic” food in Vietnam.

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Harriet draws press attention

15 February 2009, 00:00AM |

I was thrilled to see in Hong Kong's popular Sunday Morning Post today an article about our generous high-profile supporter Harriet Tung, who was on site for our latest rescue. You can read Harriet's frank interview here.

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Jen and Bear

11 February 2009, 23:51PM |

Our gorgeous Jen, who worked as our Vet in Vietnam, recently married her very own “Bear”.

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The horror continues

09 February 2009, 00:00AM |

Despite our new bears having better body condition than those we received last March, the emergency health-checks are showing all too clearly the problems that the bear farmers are attempting to disguise.

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13 more bears arrive 'home'

07 February 2009, 19:22PM |

The air was full of anticipation and excitement – it always is when new bears arrive. First you feel elated that animals that have been slowly wasting away in cages, tortured by the extractors of their bile, will soon be released from their suffering. And then you feel sick to your stomach, knowing that the odds will be against some of them and they will arrive with us too late.

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Farewell our googly Chris

03 February 2009, 20:52PM |

Just when I’d written about Chris’s new lease on life, things took a turn for the worse.

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A new lease on life for Chris

29 January 2009, 09:51AM |

This was a bear who originally had a belly full of pus and a hernia the size of a football. I'll never forget Chris arriving at our door on the 10th of June 2002 from a bear farm in Dujiangyan.

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Wise words on an emotive subject

27 January 2009, 13:48PM |

Writing about animal emotions after enjoying the London pantomime, “The Jungle Book”, the other week it seemed appropriate to reflect on the thoughts of two very special people who have championed animal emotions for decades.

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Farewell Little Eddie

23 January 2009, 17:26PM |

Something told me in vet Leanne’s voice that it was going to be bad news. I’d returned to Hong Kong at the weekend for meetings this week and was dreading a call from the team as they went back to the dog rescue centre on Tuesday.

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