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| On March 28, 2007, UK artist Pollyanna Pickering and her daughter/manager Anna-Louise Pickering departed for Bhutan sketch and paint the rare flora and fauna of this largely undisturbed region of the Himalayas.
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| Pollyanna Pickering Foundation funds Moonbear Rescue |
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When Pollyanna visited China in January 2010 to gather sketch Giant pandas and Amur Tigers for her exhibition ‘Beyond the Great Wall', she was delighted to take the opportunity to visit a wonderful rescue sanctuary near to the city of Chengdu.
In countries across Asia, thousands of bears live a life of torture on bear farms, so that their bile can be extracted and used in traditional medicine to cure ailments. Bears are confined in cages which vary from agonisingly tiny "crush" cages to larger pens, all of which cause terrible physical and mental suffering. The Animals Asia Foundation has created a wonderful sanctuary where bears rescued from a life of unmitigated misery can enjoy everything they were denied on the farms. While Pollyanna and Anna-Louise were at the sanctuary news came through of a further 12 bears awaiting rescue from a bile farm in Vietnam where the practise is now illegal. Pollyanna was delighted to be able to present Jill Robinson with a cheque for £5,200.00 on behalf od her charitale foundation to fund the rescue of one of the bears, and his safe transfer to the foundations' sister sanctuary in Vietnam.When Pollyanna presented Jill with the cheque to fund the rescue of one of the Vietnamese bears, Jill told her that one of the bears awaiting rescue was missing a paw. Bears are often found in the farms with missing limbs, an indicator they have been caught in the wild in a snare trap. Jill explained that it can be harder to find sponsorship or funding for these bears, as many people or organisations prefer to rescue a ‘whole' bear. Pollyanna and Anna-Louise confirmed that the Foundation would be happy to fund the rescue of the bear who was missing a paw. Jill immediately asked if they could name the rescued bear ‘Polly' – and Pollyanna was of course happy to agree! Shortly after her return from China, Pollyanna received confirmation that Polly bear had arrived at the sanctuary, and undergone the usual health checks, which revealed just one problem…….. Polly was a boy! So he will now be known as Polly Boy Bear.
Polly was one of 19 moon bears rescued from years of torture and transferred to the Vietnam Moon
Bear Rescue Centre in Tam Dao. To date, this is the largest number of bears rescued in Vietnam in one operation. Discovered cramped in 40ft cargo containers on an illegal bile farm in the southern
province of Binh Duong, near Ho Chi Minh City, this group of bears underwent a gruelling, three-day road-trip to safety.
Tuan, the director of the Vietnam sanctuary said all the bears from the farm were wild-caught. Tuan and the rescue team were disturbed to see the living conditions of the bears – locked in isolation in small prison-like cells, with inadequate food and water and only the cold, metal floor, often dirty and wet, to lie on. In his opinion, the rescue came just in time for the 19 bears. "It would have been so hot and suffocating for the bears in those containers over the summer months. I doubt they would have survived."
The bears were fed before leaving and given lots of water melon and dragon fruit during the trip. As it was very hot on the first day, the lorries stopped every two hours to check on the bears and give them water, fruit, and banana leaves.
Polly was the last of the bears to be unloaded from the transit truck, where Jill Robinson was waiting to welcome him to his new home. She described him as "A gorgeous three-limbed boy, missing his front left, who hopefully won't mind his new rather feminine name." She told us "Polly also has the longest neck in the world - and has the nickname "Giraffe". He also has a nice spotty crescent that looks like a mayoral chain around his neck. Weight is 150kgs and all looking good." A week later we were pleased to receive a further update – "He starts bouncing and clucking late in the day, but seems content for the most part. He eats all of his mazuri and rice, but leaves all the veggies. He loves browse, and has eaten all enrichment except coconut."
Pollyanna commented "We are delighted to have been able to give this beautiful bear the opportunity to enjoy the rest of his life in the lovely surroundings of the Animals Asia sanctuary. Of all the many cruelties humans inflict on animals, I think bear farming is the worst. The animals are kept in such unspeakably cruel conditions, and are in constant pain sometimes for as long as twenty years. I would like to say a huge thank you to all the supporters of our foundation for helping us to give at least one bear a chance for a better life."
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