TV vet calls for action on 79 bears at risk
Veterinarian, Dr Katrina Warren has joined a global plea for the rescue of 79 bears in Vietnam in urgent need of sanctuary.
She is calling on all Australians to lobby the Vietnam Government over the fate of the endangered moon bears being kept in appalling conditions in small cages on six bear farms.
The bears, at Ha Long Bay, Vietnam's most popular tourist destination are being held illegally and Dr Warren says it is time for the international community to act. She said each day the bears remain on these farms, their suffering increases.
“These bears need to be urgently relocated to Animals Asia Foundation's Moon Bear Rescue Centre at Tam Dao,” Dr Warren said.
“Two years ago, the Vietnamese Government promised to transfer the bears into our care. At that time, there were 80 bears and so far we've received only one. This is despite constant appeals to the Vietnamese authorities by Animals Asia Foundation and other international NGOs.
The remaining 79 bears are still confined to their cages in the hands of the same owners who have abused them for many years. These owners extract their bile, openly flouting Vietnam's laws prohibiting bear farming, contribute to the illegal, international trade in bear bile and cause the bears horrendous fear, suffering and pain every day.
“The farmers holding these bears have been ordered to improve their care or surrender them but nothing has happened. Now we are calling for action. Only international pressure will save these bears from further cruelty and abuse,” she said.
Although bile farming is illegal in Vietnam, the practice is still widespread. Bears are drugged with ketamine, restrained with ropes and their stomachs repeatedly jabbed with an un-sterile four inch needle. Then their bile is extracted through a suction pump.
“The mental and physical torture they endure is impossible to think about. And still the Vietnam Government refuses to enforce its own laws. It refuses to act to save these bears from deprivation, starvation and an agonising life and death,” Dr Warren said.
Animals Asia Foundation will deliver letters from around the world to the Vietnamese Prime Minister at the end of October.
"The larger the pile of letters, the better our chance of preventing further misery for these bears,” Dr Warren said.
“So please go to www.animalsasia.org to download a sample letter or write a polite letter of your own. Ask everyone you know to write one as well because time is running out for these bears.
“To show the Vietnamese Government that people all around the world want to see an end to bear farming, we need these letters as soon as possible. To have maximum impact, we need to deliver them all at once,” Dr Warren said.
Send letters to Animals Asia Foundation PO Box 275 Blackwood SA 5051.
Join our letter-writing campaign now and help urge the Vietnamese government to honour its commitment to end bear bile farming in Vietnam. The campaign will further strengthen diplomatic efforts by Australia in Vietnam to end bear farming.