After we ended bear bile farming in Quang Ninh province this year, the province got another bear – but this time it was from us.

This bear is a statue, and it’s a reminder of the heroic struggle to end bear bile farming in the province – which was once the most notorious place in Vietnam for the cruel practice. After eight years of Animals Asia campaigns in the region, November 2015 marked the rescue of the last bear trapped on a bile farm from the province. 

On December 30, 2015, a ceremony for receiving the statue was attended by Mr Do Khanh Tung, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Ninh; Mr Pham Van Phat, Director of the Quang Ninh Forest Protection Department; Mr Nguyen Cao Le, Head of the Nature Conservation Division, Forest Protection Department; Mr Kieu Dinh Son, the Quang Ninh Museum Director; and students from Le Hong Phong primary school in Ha Long City.

Quang Ninh’s new bear already has a great home – the Animal Life Exhibition Room at the Quang Ninh Museum. And there it will stay, a symbol of a province that has become a positive example for all of Vietnam.

Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson said:

“This past year has seen such incredible progress towards ending bear bile farming in Vietnam, and Quang Ninh is the best example we have of what a bile farm-free future will look like. This province was once a hell for bears, but over the past few years that has all changed. People here came together, and said that they would not tolerate such cruelty happening in their backyard. And now it will never happen in this province again.

“Whenever we think the road ahead is too long, whenever we get discouraged, we just have to look at the transformation that Quang Ninh has made – and know that this can go on.”

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