The Free the Bears Fund is an Australian charitable wildlife-protection organisation. It was started by Mary Hutton, after she watched a documentary in 1993 on bears kept in small cages for bile farming. The fund was registered as a not-for-profit charity on the 23rd March 1995 [1]. The fund supports animal welfare projects in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, working with rescued and confiscated Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), Sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), and Sloth bear (Ursus ursinus).