A New Beginning

I waited all day to capture this blip.... A very special moment, as we eagerly caught the first glimpses of a new bear to arrive at our centre today. This is bear number 115 to be welcomed to VBRC! She needed to be anaethetised to move her from the farm cage to our transport cage, and she decided to take all afternoon to wake up so the journey home was delayed and then very slow going. Our rescue team arrived just on dusk and so we are yet to find out all the details of this little female bear. She is quite skinny and very nervous, so lots of patience and TLC will be needed to help nurse this little girl back to health and slowly gain her trust.

She was voluntarily handed over however which is always a wonderful thing. Our founder Jill Robinson was able to attend the rescue today and spent some time with the family who owned the bear, showing them photos of our centre and the wonderful new life awaiting her. They were very happy to see the photos of happy playful bears and felt that they had done the right thing by handing her over to us. I'm not sure of her name as yet, but to me she will always be our little ANZAC bear. An apt name considering the horrors that she has been put through her entire life thus far. The family have had her since she was a small cub and she has spent her entire life in a small suspended metal cage, in a dark room, having bile extracted from her abdomen on a regular basis. War comes in many forms, and there are still 2400 bears on farms throughout Vietnam, fighting thier own battles every day. We will end bear bile farming ... one bear at a time.

But not to dwell too much on her sad past - today is a day to celebrate a new beginning to hopefully a long and happy life with us.

It's not official yet! And I don't think I'm supposed to be letting everybody know, but I just had to tell everyone in my blip world! Please keep it hush hush for now and make no comments on FB as yet, thanks!