With help from UK supporter and film-maker Andrew Telling, we've made a fantastic video about Twizzle, a dog rescued from China's meat trade on New Year’s Eve 2008. Twizzle, after a long journey back to health and across the oceans, now lives with vet nurse Helena Molloy in England. Helena, who volunteered at our sanctuary at the time of Twizzle's rescue, fell in love with “Mummy dog" as Twizzle was first called and worked her socks off to bring her home to the UK.
See the video here.
Change is happening very fast in China with more and more people welcoming companion animals into their homes and becoming aware of animal welfare. We're working with and supporting local animal welfare groups, communities and local authorities helping to change long-held attitudes and empowering people to affect change and stop the brutal treatment of dogs and cats.
UK supporters can help us with this by making a small text donation today. Just text Woof37 £3 to 70070 (it's a free text and for UK mobiles only). It's a small amount, but if every UK-based supporter reading this blog today can spare 5 minutes to text this donation, it could help make a big difference.
And finally to celebrate our unique relationship with our wonderful dogs, the UK is also running a Happy Dogs Photo Competition, with a Company of Animals £100 products voucher as the prize. Details of the competition can be found on the page about Twizzle.
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It was lovely recently to have on site at our Tam Dao sanctuary Jeremy Higgs, who has helped our Vietnam operations so much over the past few years. Here are a few pics of the day (with Tuan, our Vietnam Director, and vet Kirsty).
Jeremy manages Hong Kong-based Green Dragon Fund, run by Environmental Investment Services Asia Limited (EISAL), which helped so generously towards the construction cost of a new bear house and enclosures on site. The bear house contains 24 dens and can house up to 38 bears at a time. The semi-natural enclosures are specially designed to stimulate the bears’ natural behaviour in the wild - but, much much more, to give these bears the real taste of freedom (and fun) that they never experienced on the farms.
Not only that….. Green Dragon Fund is also providing our Vietnam sanctuary with recycled water, as they have generously supported our environmentally friendly wastewater treatment system. I know how passionately Jeremy feels about clean water - the lifeblood of the earth, and now he's pioneering a technique that keeps the sanctuary and surrounding area clean too.
Their kindness could not have been more timely. With our bear numbers steadily increasing in Vietnam, we were in urgent need of more space to house our new arrivals, and show the authorities and community how much we care about the environment too.
We had a fabulous day, but somehow I think the highlight of Jeremy's visit was being introduced to his own very special bear - our beautiful little cub - Tieu Long - which means Little Dragon
Thank you again Jeremy and all in Green Dragon and EISAL for being such a perfect example of corporate social responsibility, for protecting Vietnam's environment and, most of all, for your part in the day when bear farming ends.
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So nice to be back after some "problems" that have been affecting our website and blog.
The real problem? Hackers of course - relentlessly attempting to hack into our system and take us down following countrywide outrage against bear farming here in China. It is with some satisfaction that we have recently heard that the two most searched words on the internet - behind famous Chinese basketball player "Jeremy Lin" are, in fact, "bear farming".
No more to be said except to get on and continue with why we are here - to end this disgusting industry until every last bear farm has closed.
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From a wonderful artist in China last week, to a talented photographer and supporter in Germany this week....
Sepp Hausl has visited us in Chengdu twice now, taking the most beautiful pictures of the bears. He has also been following news of the momentum in China to end bear farming and has sent this tribute to the thousands of bears waiting for their freedom - a moving plea, simply entitled, "Help".
Now is the time for bear farming to end.
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My dear friend and mentor – and our UK Patron and Founder of Born Free – Virginia McKenna, has sent an inspiring message to the world about bear farming which I wanted to share. I will never forget our trip together to the hell holes of Vietnam last year where we saw unimaginable suffering to so many farmed bears.
Now Virginia has sent a message which will lift an exhausted team of dedicated people striving to end this despicable trade in China. This is to every single donor, volunteer and staff member (past and present) across the globe – and to everyone in China and worldwide raising their voices to a deafening crescendo – now is the time for bear farming to end.
In Virginia's words:
The stark truth about bear “farming” in China has touched the hearts of an unprecedented number of Chinese people. Thanks, perhaps, to the increased press exposure in China of the terrible truth about bear bile extraction.
As a European, my opinion could possibly be ignored by those responsible for this terrible trade and its place in traditional Chinese medicine [TCM] but not, surely, the views of the Chinese people themselves.
Although an “outsider”, I believe I represent countless people around the world who are disgusted and deeply shocked by the terrible and cruel treatment of the thousands of bears who are victims of the TCM market. Imprisoned in cages for years on end, and subjected to the painful and invasive extraction of the bile (often from open and infected wounds).
I feel I am justified in speaking out as I have personally visited some of the “farms” in Vietnam. I have seen the cages, the grotesque suffering of the bears, witnessed the nightmare lives they endure. I have also seen the indifference of the “farm” owners. I shall never forget any of it. It is the stuff of nightmares.
I have also visited the Animals Asia Rescue Centres in Vietnam and in China. The tireless and courageous work of Jill Robinson and her team, is the beacon of light that shines out and brings hope to those beautiful moon bears. Those lucky enough to be saved and given the chance of a new life, arrive with manifold and terrible physical problems. And one would think that they would harbour deep and long-lasting grudges against all humans because of their previous treatment. But animals understand so much more than we ever give them credit for. I am sure, beyond all doubt, that the rescued bears I saw knew that they were safe and loved.
I am very honoured to be the Animals Asia UK Patron and I add my voice to all the others who call for the end of the bear bile trade and the unspeakable suffering it causes. Let humans also be humane.
Virginia McKenna OBE
Founder Trustee The Born Free Foundation
UK Patron Animals Asia Foundation
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