I still believe in miracles, but today the miracle went to someone else. As we held Willow’s paws, while Heather injected the fluid that would end his life, we wept. It hardly seems a week ago to the day when we were all so hopeful as this brave bear was into his third day of recovering from the massive tumour removed from his liver.
In December 2007, full-page reports appeared over three days in Hong Kong's Chinese-language Wen Wei Po newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Government in Hong Kong. The reporter undertook a four-month undercover investigation with the help of Animals Asia, and wrote a series of features that exposed the true horrors of bear farming today.
Lovely Simba is continuing to make a big impression on his fellow residents at the sanctuary. Here he is meeting Kevin, who is also three-legged. As you can see, Kevin’s not too sure what to make of this little golden scallywag, but he’s clearly enthralled!
A few days ago, I offered to foster three-legged Simba in my room. A little golden cross-breed, Simba was brought into the Chengdu bear sanctuary by his owner after he’d been run over by a car and badly hurt his back right leg. Theoretically a bear sanctuary rather than a dog and cat rescue centre, we do offer the occasional “outreach” programme for times like this where animals are clearly in pain or distress.
The best sight in the world yesterday was walking in to the hospital recovery room and watching Willow eagerly slurping his fruity shake from the hands of our beaming vet, Heather. Bright and alert and standing on all four paws in his recovery cage, Willow is now on his third day of a new life following the removal of a 4.3-kg tumour from his liver.
Yesterday's health check saw our faces drop as we turned Willow over onto his back on the surgery table. Not visible when he was joyfully tearing around in his enclosure the day before, now we were looking at all the evidence of liver cancer, as an ominous swelling appeared where his right liver lobe would be. Suspicion had been mounting in previous weeks as it appeared that Willow was losing weight and had a dull-looking coat. Nothing more indicated that anything was wrong – certainly not in his demeanour, which saw him bombing through the grass with his friends, enjoying giddy games of play and clearly unperturbed by and ignorant of the growth that was killing him inside.
Thank you all so much for knitting mitts for our Chinese bears - just a quick message to respond to some queries on materials to be used. Please feel free to use anything you like so long as it is machine washable and doesn't shrink in the dryer - and, of course, no fur. Really anything that will provide a layer on the bears' feet (we're just using small towels at the moment but they're not the most effective and of course are hard on our washing machine). More later on the fabulous response - and again thank you from us all.
非常感谢大家为我们的黑熊精心编制的熊掌手套，在此特别简短地回答大家关于手套编织材料的几个疑问。您可以选择任何喜欢的材料编织，只要可以机洗，不缩水，而且当然不能是皮毛。只要能够给黑熊的掌提供一个温暖的保护层。目前我们使用的是小毛巾，但效果并不大好，而且洗过之后质地很硬。若您还有疑问，稍后我会告诉大家我们的支持者对于编织手套积极响应的情况，最后再次感谢您的帮助。
With the mercury plummeting to well below freezing here in chilly Chengdu and our first big batch of rescued bears due to arrive in Vietnam any time now, our vet team has a very special request – we need warm paw mittens for our bears. When the bears are anaesthetised and brought in to the surgery for check-ups it’s important that we keep them warm and comfortable with a temperature of around 37 degrees C. So if any of you out there are handy with a pair of knitting needles, you may like to get creative and help to keep our lovely bears’ paws warm and toasty.
Before giving you an update on our current bear programmes, please, on behalf of all in the Animals Asia team, can I wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year – and the best of everything in 2008. With our 10th anniversary looming on 8 August 2008, and the Chinese lucky number “8” featuring prominently in this auspicious date, we feel that this is going to be a special year ahead.
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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