From freeing bears from cages to informing millions of people about why it is so vitally important, 2016 was a busy year for everyone at Animals Asia. Here is what we achieved in numbers over the last 12 months.

At our sanctuaries:

In Vietnam, 14 bears: Chau, Bao Lam, Annemarie, Kaffe, Jarai, Su Su, Dau Phu, Binh Minh, Winter, Bi Xanh, Poe, Snow, Cranberry, and Ivy were rescued off of farms and given new lives of freedom at our Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre (VBRC).

At our China Bear Rescue Centre (CBRC), bears slurped 29,565 delicious congee fruit shakes.

More than 4,892 people visited VBRC, including 2,308 students from 41 Universities and schools. 1,045 of those visitors participated in presentations on bear protection at the schools and universities they came from.

At CBRC, VBRC, and Nanning we completed over 232 health checks on rescued bears, providing them with the veterinary care they need to live happy, healthy lives.

In Vietnam, 42 bear workers observed the bears eating, drinking, tumbling, and slumbering for a combined total of more than 69,000 hours.

 

A video posted by Animals Asia (@animalsasia) on Sep 26, 2016 at 3:01am PDT

 

3,000 bear-loving visitors visited our sanctuary in Chengdu.

Staff at CBRC stuffed 80,300 medicated marshmallows, making the bears’ medication a sweet treat.

At our CBRC, bears delighted in 109 jars of stinky tofu.

The VBRC Bear and Vet team completed 70 dental procedures, ensuring that rescued bears could chomp away in comfort.

At our sanctuaries, bears cooled off with more than 28,000 flavorful ice pops.

At Chengdu we rescued, rehabilitated, and released one young bear cub who had been cruelly trapped back into the wild.

Ending Bear Bile Farming:

In China, superstar Animals Asia supporter Karen Mok held an online moon bear Q+A session which attracted an astonishing 250,000 comments. The session followed a prime time TV appearance where Karen performed while wearing moon bear themed clothes designed to raise awareness of the animals’ plight.

An Australian video about Animals Asia’s efforts to rescue and care for hundreds of bears was shown at superstar Karen Mok’s concerts, reaching an audience of approximately 70,000 people.

16 devoted supporters from the UK collectively walked a total 800km along the Great Wall of China, over five days to raise funds for the bears and Animals Asia’s work to help them.

In Vietnam, we distributed more than 4,000 children’s brochures, 2,470 booklets promoting herbal alternatives to bear bile, over 1,200 brochures with information about laws protecting bears, and approximately 1,000 herbal rubbing bottles with bear bile alternatives to people in Phung Thuong – a commune with a high concentration of captive bears.

Animals Asia provided funding for three traditional medicine gardens in Vietnam’s Ha Giang, Tay Ninh, and Vinh Phuc provinces to grow and promote 32 herbal alternatives to bear bile. In total, the three gardens have more than 2,695 trees of nearly 30 types of plants that can be used in place of bear bile.

In Shanghai, nearly 300 guests and a host of Chinese celebrities attended Animals Asia’s annual Blue Moon Gala to raise funds for CBRC and awareness for the plight of the country’s bears.

Our Vietnam team also organized 10 events with a focus on ending bear bile farming, reaching 1,231 students, 60 teachers, 280 student parents, over 70 bear and wildlife owners, and more than 2,500 other members of the public.

We funded three training classes for over 100 traditional medicine students (future practitioners) currently studying at Vietnam Traditional Medicine Association to study an extra curriculum on herbal alternatives to bear bile. 

Captive Animal Welfare:

Our exposure of the plight of Pizza, a polar bear trapped in a zoo inside a shopping mall appeared in more than 681 news outlets, reaching over 1.7 billion viewers.

Animals Asia’s Captive Animal Welfare programme held 25 events across China to educate people about animal cruelty, attended by 15,820 people.

In Vietnam, 20 zoo veterinarians implemented animal welfare practices following workshops with Animals Asia.

Our “Freedom” video was seen by 150 million people when displayed in apartments, shopping malls, and car parks in 80 cities throughout China.

 

A video posted by Animals Asia (@animalsasia) on Feb 17, 2016 at 5:59pm PST

 

Cat and Dog Welfare:

Animals Asia’s “Say No to Cat and Dog Meat” advertising campaign appeared on 118 light boxes and LED screens in metro stations, bus stops, busy pedestrian streets and underground passageways in 9 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Nanning, Nanjing, Guiyang, Harbin and Changchun where dog eating is most prevalent in China—reaching more than 1,000,000 people.

More than 30 Professor Paws dogs helped teach over 7,000 students in Hong Kong about animal welfare while showering youngsters with puppy love.

Over 40,000 informational materials on cat and dog welfare, including leaflets, posters, banners, stickers and DVDs were delivered to the Chinese public, influencing more than 430,000 people.

Cuddly Dr Dog therapy dogs brightened the days of over 11,331 people with 263 visits to 131 nursing homes and centers for special needs children in Hong Kong, and mainland China cities: Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu.

Our Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) fund project helped 4 local groups to successfully neuter and release back 517 stray cats in Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao and Guangzhou. Under our continued help, Shanghai Focus Neuter group’s TNR project in several communities has reached a 70% stray cat neuter rate, which is a humane way to control the stray cat population.

We held 100 public education events in Hong Kong SAR and mainland Chinese cities: Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu, addressing cat and dog welfare, attended by 21,083 people.

We investigated 28 cities across China and reported over 1,000 dog meat restaurants to the local Food and Drug Administration. To date, 30 of those have been ordered to close down.

Worldwide:

We participated in Shanghai’s first ever vegan festival, the Vegan Fiesta, attended by approximately 3,000 people from across China. An Animals Asia representative spoke to the crowd and we handed out information from our booth.

In Germany, seven television shows reported on our work, reaching 7.3 million people.

Animals Asia’s star-studded TV commercial was seen by more than 714,000 people in Australia thanks to our good friends at MultiChannelNetwork.

We participated in approximately 200 events in the UK, educating the public about our work to help animals. That’s more than one event every other day!

In October 2016, Jill visited the US, traveling across the country, and landing in four states along the way. Arriving from the UK and returning to Hong Kong, in total she flew 21,347 km (13,281 miles) in nine days. She visited Massachusetts, New York, Nebraska, and California. That mileage could have taken her across the continental US over 4.5 times.

The 45-minute documentary Vietnam, the Moon Bears’ Destiny aired on German TV channel ARTE highlighting Animals Asia’s work in Vietnam and reaching an audience of more than 1 million people.

Online:

Our video of Tuffy, a moon bear rescued from a bear bile farm jumping for joy in his pool at our sanctuary, was viewed more than 2.3 million times.

Animals Asia’s “Meatless Monday” social media posts in China, inviting people to abstain from eating meat one day a week, were read 4.1 million times.

Six huge celebrities in China: Xu Weizhou, Mo Wenwei, Zhang Tianai, Chen Qiaoen, Huo Zun and Lv Songxian delivered information about our work to their more than 81 million Weibo followers.

People watched our videos exposing cruelty, documenting our rescues, and sharing the happiness of rehabilitated bears more than 7,957,200 times.

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