When a bear at Animals Asia’s China sanctuary was suffering from a nagging and mysterious health condition, Animals Asia called in a favour – at the local human hospital.

Transporting moon bear Tinsley on the back of a truck through a major city, then carrying her through a human hospital on the way to the CAT scanning machine drew quite a crowd of curious onlookers. But she was unaware of the situation. Fast asleep and under anaesthesia, Tinsley didn’t even know she’d left her sanctuary.

Tinsley is one of 121 bears living at Animals Asia’s China Bear Rescue Centre – all rescued from bile farms in China, where 10,000 bears still face painful daily extractions with their bile used for traditional medicine.

For quite some time, Tinsley has had intermittent lameness in her right hind leg, and so far radiographs and an assessment by Dr Alane Cahalane – a specialist surgeon from the Veterinary Specialty Hospital in Hong Kong – had not revealed the cause. So our vets took the same step a human doctor would – they scheduled a CAT scan.

A team of four bear workers lifted Tinsley through the hospital and onto the CAT scanner’s platform, with her paws comfortably restrained so she wouldn’t fall off. Patients and visitors appreciated the efforts of the Animals Asia team – taking plenty of smart phone pics that ended up on social media.

Despite the bears’ size and this request being out of the ordinary, Animals Asia was charged no more than a human patient. In addition, the hospital provided a further series of scans free of charge. This included Tinsley’s abdomen, head and neck – so vets could make sure there were no further complications. They also let Tinsley jump the queue of non-urgent cases, so that she didn’t have to wait.

Animals Asia Vet Emily Drayton said:

“We haven’t yet received the results from the scan, but we are hopeful her condition is one that will allow Tinsley to be reintegrated with her group. Currently Tinsley is living in an enclosure by herself, and while she seems completely content with this situation, we do think it would be nice if she could also spend time with her friends. 

“On arrival back at the centre, Tinsley had a fast recovery from the anaesthetic and was soon tearing into her usual snacks shortly after waking up. She had no idea the adventure she’d just had.”

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