Maria Daines
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10/31/2006 2:06:25 PM
Update on the ten new bear rescues, Animals Asia Foundation...
Dear All,
Jill has once again sent further news of the recently rescued bears which I know that you will be pleased to read. I am very pleased to say that the situation is certainly settling down for the 10 new bears in our care and our wonderful team in China are busy providing them with everything that they need to help them to recover from their horrendous injuries.
Best Wishes,
Dave
Jill wrote ……… 30th October 2006
The last of our twelve - Bear Number S217 - Bluebelle - has just this afternoon been cut from her rusting home of a crush cage for her first proper health check. For a young, wild-caught bear missing her front left limb at the elbow, and with sightless eyes of cloudy blue cataracts, she is astonishingly sweet and gentle.
How she could have even thought of licking apricot jam earlier from fingers of a species who have virtually tried to kill her is astonishing. Evidence of bar biting during her years of desolation and frustration on the farm have led to worn and broken tips of her canines and incisors. An abdominal hole leaking bile and nestled inside a hernia shows the extent of the damage by so-called surgeons employed to perform this butchery on the farms.
Now waking up in a roomy recovery cage, lying on straw and looking forward to finishing her jam, Bluebelle, like the rest of the bears this week, is finally on her way to a peaceful and long overdue recovery.
Our vet staff and bear workers have been euphoric for most of the afternoon as the last two bears have slept their way obliviously through the health checks. Everybody so needed the final two to be good news bears and they didn't let us down.
This past week has seen such heartache for bears we weren't able to save - but, like Andrew and all those before, they have left behind a legacy of vital information which will bring this industry down.
Our evidence sees young bears with legs severed in leghold traps who are clearly much less than 17 years old; - the cut-off point from when trapping bears in the wild was made illegal in China in 1989. We've wept for bears like Twiglet who died from a combination of heart and renal failure, and our old enemy - septicemia - which would have been agonising in the last lonely weeks of his life. His bodyweight too made us sick to our stomachs, after Bev calculated that he was at least 59% less than he should weigh as a healthy male. It would be like looking at a fully grown Labrador dog of less than 10kgs in weight.
Phill's postmortem of Message, who died from an inoperable liver tumour earlier in the week, revealed pus in her bile which is now leaning even more strongly towards the hypothesis of a tumour factor, that is not only killing bears, but possibly consumers too.
But, as ever, out of the dark comes light. Big Boss - now officially given the wonderfully strong and very fitting name; Agathon - is being spoiled rotten by Vet Cath who claims to have no favourites, but seems remarkably close to this bear. Presenting his tummy to her for abdomen checks without even being asked, Agathon is distinctly Rupert like bless his slow and plodding heart and already charming everyone with his innocence and appreciation of anything related to kindness or food.
Ria transformed Vet nurse Candice tonight into what I can only describe as a proud and gushing mother as she described her waking up for the first time in her Recovery cage, tossing straw into great piles, and then leaping into the mound with glee.
Thanks especially to everyone for your messages of strength and support - the emails sharing grief for Twiglet and Message were printed and placed into the graves as the flames flickered skywards and the words from our poem "Spirit of H
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