Would you consider leaving behind your home, moving overseas, and dedicating your life to the welfare of suffering animals?

I wondered whether I would do this when I met the founder of Animals Asia, Jill Robinson, at the Minding Animals Conference in New Delhi. Actually, I wondered less about whether I could leave the comforts of home and more about whether I would have the determination required to give over my life to animals in the face of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles and wretched suffering.

Jill has been fighting the bear bile trade in Asia – which is principally in China but also in Vietnam, Laos, and Korea – since the early 1990’s. There are in excess of 10,000 “factory-farmed” bile bears in China and 2,000 in Vietnam. Animals Asia has re-homed 400 bears to its bear rescue centres, located in Chengdu and Tam Dao.

Extracting the bile of hunted bears has occurred for thousands of years in China. Continue reading Beating the bear bile trade