I’m just about to catch a flight from Hong Kong to Chengdu, but first I wanted to give you a quick update on the situation at the sanctuary and apologise for having to miss the first three events of my US Roadshow, which starts tomorrow.
It's 1pm China time and we've just heard from a friend in Chendgdu that local Chinese news reports say another another earthquake is expected this afternoon. No more details yet.
Thanks so much for all your messages of concern and support. The death toll is now over 10,000 and still climbing and the city is still in the grip of aftershocks.
The news is getting worse I'm afraid. At 9.30pm China time, the official death toll from the quake was up to 5,000 and we fear it will rise further throughout the night.
The latest news at 9pm China time has the State News Agency advising that anything up to 3,500 people have now lost their lives in the earthquake in Chengdu.
Here's an update from Heather, our Senior Vet on site
A lot of you will have heard by now that there has been an earthquake in Chengdu. We're getting a lot of worried people contacting us - so just a quick post to let you know that all is OK at the sanctuary.
Things are gradually getting back to normal at the sanctuary, with most of the foreign staff who were evacuated on Tuesday returning this weekend. This is despite the fact that the embassies are still issuing warnings to their citizens and advising them to stay away. Because of this, we are having to issue disclaimers to the returning staff.
Things are gradually getting back to normal at the sanctuary, with most of the foreign staff who were evacuated on Tuesday returning this weekend. This is despite the fact that the embassies are still issuing warnings to their citizens and advising them to stay away. Because of this, we are having to issue disclaimers to the returning staff.
You don’t mess around with a gigantic brown bear like Caesar when she’s due a routine health check. I remember only too well her rescue some four years ago when she bounced violently in her rusting cage on the bear farm in Tianjin and I thought she would crash through. Wearing a grotesque, painful full-metal jacket (see bottom photo), which secured a metal box and crude latex catheter that snaked itself into her gall bladder, Caesar was understandably a very unhappy bear.
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