Moon bears are kept in cramped cages and milked for their bile which is used as a traditional medicine, unfortunately to get to the bile they have to stick a large, usually unsterilised needle into the bear. Many of the bears are missing limbs from the traps used to capture them and they can survive many years of this suffering.
Ricky Gervais supported a black bear named Stan who sadly died earlier this month.
Woke up to the news that my beautiful rescue bear Stan has died. At least he experienced 2 years of freedom and love twitter.com/rickygervais/s…So I went to the website for Animals Asia and and chose Befriend a Bear, I read through until I chose Bodo.
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) February 3, 2012
When you Befriend a Bear you get the below:
"By choosing to befriend a bear for yourself, family or friends, you will receive a photograph of your new friend in a uniquely designed "Befriend A Bear" display frame together with a "Befriending Certificate", information on your bear's unique character and a gorgeous, plush Moon Bear toy! This cute toy will be a great talking point, helping you to spread the word about the bears to your friends." - From https://www.animalsasia.org/donate/index.php?BefriendA quick form and a PayPal payment and all done. I look for to getting Bodo's picture through, in the meantime I found this one at http://wintonbearfoundation.org/how-you-can-help/12-12-12/bodo-new-hammock which is now the background wallpaper on my phone and tablet.
This is really great! I only recently found out about the bear bile industry and it broke my heart. I have a hard time understanding Asia's general stance on animal welfare (between fur farms, torchuring dogs for "better-tasting food," etc.) given that Buddhism is a prominent religion there. I know that sentence has a lot of over-generalizations, but I still wonder...
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