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.
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.
Our gorgeous Jen, who worked as our Vet in Vietnam, recently married her very own “Bear”.
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.
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.
Just when I’d written about Chris’s new lease on life, things took a turn for the worse.
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.
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.
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.
On this latest trip to Qimeng Rescue Centre I remembered to bring tissues. “Little Eddie” has had two reprieves now as her health goes up and down – and I’d convinced myself that I would be holding her frail little body for the last time. This is a photo of her that Rainbow Zhu, our Education Manager, took as she arrived on the truck:
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