He’s rescued hundreds of bears from bile farms but, for Animals Asia Vietnam boss Tuan, those still caged and suffering never leave his thoughts.
In 2011, an Animals Asia team was in Vietnam’s Gia Lai province to rescue a sun bear from a bile farm. As is always the case with bear bile farms, the animal, now known as Nelson, was kept in appalling conditions.
Animals Asia’s Vietnam Director Tuan Bendixsen remembers the tiny, rusting cage that had held Nelson for his entire life (pictured below).
Bear farms take their toll in myriad ways. Nelson’s teeth were shattered and infected from desperate attempts to chew through the iron bars, while the surface of his eyes were scratched affecting his vision.
Over 11 years rescuing bears from the bile industry, Tuan has no shortage of bad memories. He knows better than anyone what bear bile farming looks like: hopeless, fearful eyes, balding skin, open wounds, malnourished bodies and shattered teeth.
Tuan said:
“I’ve rescued over 150 bears in Vietnam and I’ve never yet seen a bile farmed bear held in conditions that are anything other than deplorable. Five years ago in Pleiku for Nelson’s rescue it was the same. I’ve lost count of how many farms I’ve been on, but they never fail to fill me with dread.”
So when local Forest Protection Department (FPD) officials told Tuan there were more bears being held in the province, he knew he had to act to spare them the horror he had seen repeated elsewhere so many times.
That day he made them a promise: if you can convince farmers to give them up, we can save the bears – anytime and we’d be back.
That pledge was vital. Vietnam’s Forestry departments are woefully under funded. If they were to find evidence of bear bile extraction they would most likely be forced to turn a blind eye. They simply have no facilities to care for confiscated bears.
Tuan’s promise changed all that. It empowered the FPD to go after those farmers, watch them closely for any mistakes and convince them every day that there is no future in the cruelty of bear bile farming.
This month, more than half a decade later, that pressure looks to have paid off as hopes grow that these bears (pictured above) can finally be saved.
“For five years I’ve known these bears were suffering unimaginable torment. Underfed, unable to stretch their bodies, sickness, pain and mental agony. We’ve seen it all before, but I know when I set foot on those farms it’ll be as horrific as the first time. The disgust of bear bile farming never dulls. The bears you can’t rescue, haunt you – they’re never far from your thoughts.
“Now we just hope we can rescue these bears and start to turn their lives around. We can’t give them back the years they’ve lost but we can make them free from pain. If we can get them back to our sanctuary we can give them sunshine, open air and bear friends to play with.”
Posted on November 9, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Above and below – Pictures of the London Memorial.
Subject: Animals in War Memorial Remembrance Sunday 13th November 2016.
18 million horses killed in the First World War along with a quarter of a million pigeons, thousand of rats and hundreds of dogs. They did not give their lives, their lives were taken from them.
Animals in Wars past and present memorial on Remembrance Sunday 13th November at War Memorial Albion Gardens Place Ramsgate CT11 8HQ at 2pm.
Please bring wreaths and flowers to honour our animal brothers and sisters slaughtered in human wars.
Posted on November 9, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Mark,
Shock and disappointment. Like you, that’s how all of us here at NRDC are feeling after witnessing last night’s election results.
Hillary Clinton, a climate champion, lost. Donald Trump, who embraces fossil fuels, has vowed to roll back the Paris accord and calls climate change a hoax, has won. Feeling shell-shocked is an appropriate response.
But we will not let that shock linger or, worse yet, turn to despair. We are going to transform it into concrete, planet-affirming action.
Know this: NRDC will fight for our environment, for our climate, and for our shared clean energy future — harder than we ever have fought before.
Donald Trump ran on one of the most stridently anti-environment platforms of any recent major-party nominee, but now he is the president-elect.
Analysts will sort out why people pulled the lever for this man. However, this much is equally clear. Whatever Americans voted for, it was not to turn back the clock on the environmental progress we’ve achieved over the last eight years under President Barack Obama.
It was not to continue allowing big polluters and their climate-denying allies in Congress to pillage our natural heritage and our planet for profit. It was not to walk away from the Paris climate agreement, the promise of clean energy and desperately needed progress on fighting climate change here at home. And it certainly was not to deny our fellow Americans their basic right to safe drinking water, clean air and healthy communities simply because of their income or skin color.
So it’s time for every American — Republican, Democrat and Independent alike — to stand and defend our environment and health.
Yes, today shock will prevail. But prepare yourself, because tomorrow the battle for all the environmental values we hold dear will begin. And we must be ready.
You can take heart from this: over the past 45 years, thanks to your support, we have fought — and won — uphill battles before. We succeeded in stalling, blocking or sinking the worst attempts by past presidents like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, senators like Mitch McConnell and congressmen like Newt Gingrich to dismantle some of our nation’s most cherished environmental laws… to privatize our public lands… to open our treasured wild places to destruction at the hands of the oil, mining and logging industries.
And let me tell you, the Trump administration will have to contend with an NRDC that wields a far more potent combination of grassroots activism, courtroom power, lobbying expertise and media outreach than we ever have had before.
Donald Trump will also have to contend with the over 2.4 million NRDC members and activists who will not tolerate selling out our environment, our health, our natural resources and our children’s future for profit and extreme ideology. And on the issue of catastrophic climate change — the defining challenge of our generation — failure is not an option.
In the meantime, we must ensure that President Obama — who has become an inspired and inspiring climate champion — does whatever he can in the remaining 70 days of his presidency, to put in place even tougher safeguards for our climate, our public lands and our wildlife.
In the weeks ahead, I will report back to you in more detail on NRDC’s action plan for defending our environment during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency — and beyond.
But I can share one key element of that plan right now: You. We’re counting on you to stay the course with NRDC. We need your outrage. We need your focus. We need your activism. We need your support. Are you in?
“Trump’s energy policies would accelerate climate change, protect corporate polluters who profit from poisoning our air and water, and block the transition to clean energy that is necessary to strengthen our economy and protect our climate and health,”
Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmental activist, told Reuters.
Arci was transferred to Italy by the international animal welfare organization S.O.S. ANIMALI, based near Rome.
After getting used to new environment, Archie will get special prostheses with which he will be able to walk. – said Natasa Vukmirovic, president of the association LJUDI ZA ŽIVOTINJE (HUMANS FOR ANIMALS).
For more info, contact:
Natasa Vukmirovic on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ljudi.za.zivotinje.bg
I hope Arci is much loved, and will always be well taken care of.
Desanka.
Time: November 9, 2016 at 8:04 am
————————————————
So fingers crossed that everything is still going well for Archie and that he has found help and a safe new home with care in Italy. We want to thank Desanka for taking time out to give us an update of the situation.
This positive news has also been sent to our contact in Sweden who first contacted us with concerns, asking if Archie had been returned to the streets. In a private e mail we said that we thought this would be very unlikely given the seriousness of his injuries; and from what we now know, this was the case and hopefully all is still good for Archie.
Posted on October 31, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
This handout image taken on November 19, 2007 shows an orangutan with an injection dart in his side – given to make him sleep before rangers relocate him to another place on Borneo island. In the middle of Borneo island, the struggle against the deforestation is lead by Yayasan Orangutan Indonesia (Yayorin) who convinces indigenous people not to sell their lands to palm oil companies, which is vital to the orangutan. At the end of 2008, more than 15,000 hectares of the community forest in Central Kalimantan have been sold for palm oil plantations threatening the livelihood of 2,500 people. (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
Mark,
Orangutans, sloths, and jaguars — Burger King’s palm oil policy is putting endangered species at risk by failing to protect invaluable tropical forests.
Despite years of public outcry, Burger King has failed to commit to a deforestation policy that protects tropical forests. These forests are destroyed to plant more soy and palm that ends up in Burger King’s supply chain.
Deforestation accounts for an incredible 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Competitors like McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts have committed to eliminating deforestation from their supply chain. It’s not only unconscionable that Burger King’s parent company Restaurant Brands International has failed to do the same — it’s just bad business.
It’s high time RBI do the same to protect tropical rainforests and the amazing wildlife they are home to.
Last year, Burger King scored a woeful 10/100 on the Union for Concerned Scientists’ palm oil scorecard.
Burger King promised to review its rainforest policy back in 2010, but has instead spent the last six years contributing to the destruction of tropical forests, adding to global warming emissions and decimating the habitats of already-threatened species.
There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers and 1,500 Borneo pygmy elephants left in the wild because of irresponsible palm oil policies. Their homes are being destroyed to make room for palm oil sold to major global brands like Burger King.
We know that when we come together, we have the power to shift even the biggest corporate players. Just last year, we pressured McDonald’s to commit to 100% sustainable palm oil by 2020. That’s why we’re now pressuring Burger King’s parent company RBI — which also owns Tim Hortons. We want RBI to know that consumers across the world are demanding it adopts a No Deforestation policy before it’s too late.
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 