We are getting a lot of queries about how Animals Asia is using the Olympics to highlight the suffering of animals in China. This is an issue we have given much thought to and have been discussing for some time. We have been working on the ground in China for over 20 years and we believe we know what works and what doesn't. In our view, boycotts and "aggressive" protests simply don't work - in fact they can work against us.
Life blooms eternal – following the sad deaths of our bears, Irwin and Yin Yang in Chengdu, their sponsors chose to keep the original names for our two new cubs in Vietnam.
We’re often asked if the bears really put their past behind them and recover mentally from their traumatic years on the farms. The simplest way of responding to that question these days is simply to say, “tree party”!
Some of you may have heard that Beijing has banned its official Olympics restaurants from serving dog meat during the Games. Our China Relations Director Christie Yang quickly wrote to the Mayor of Beijing calling for the ban to be made permanent.
Tuesday 10am and Jen’s just made the first incision into Miracle’s, abdomen. At that precise moment, the lights flickered, some of the equipment stopped and our vet teams’ eyes opened wide over their masks. With a sleeping bear on the surgery table, this is not a good time for the electricity to fail.
There have been some incredible "people" stories coming out of the Chengdu earthquake. People crawling out of flattened buildings, or buried in rubble for days, sometimes over a week, and found still alive.
The wheels continue to grind frustratingly slowly in Vietnam. Eighty bears currently held illegally on farms in Ha Long Bay and originally slated for rescue into our care are now entwined in a complicated mess of Government intervention and delays.
Nicky Vyvyan-Robinson (no relation), our UK PR and Events Manager, has written a great summary of what the UK roadshow meant to our beautiful bears, dogs and cats in terms of the faith, generosity and tireless support from people all over the UK. You can see Nicky's write-up here.
Pat yourselves on the back our amazing UK team because you deserve every accolade going! The roadshow was a fun-filled, fund-raising, emotional roller-coaster from start to finish and we wouldn’t have missed it for the world. So fabulous to meet up again with old friends and supporters and to gain new advocates for programmes that we were proud to be able to speak about in person to audiences across the country.
I’m so sad to have to bring you the news that Bossham, who was among the 28 moon bears rescued on 31 March, has died. This brings to 13 the total number of bears from that group that have succumbed to ailments caused by their appalling treatment on the farms. Bossham was a brave and beautiful bear with a glorious temperament despite his disabilities; he was so much loved by us all.
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