Free the Bears Fund

The Free the Bears Fund (FBF) 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 23 March 1995.[1] The Free the Bears 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). A sister charity Free the Bears UK was established in the United Kingdom in 2010.

History and achievements

In 1993, whilst watching acurrent affairs TV program in Perth, retired grandmother Mary Hutton saw a segment that would change her life and hundreds of others. The segment contained horrifying footage of Moon bears held in coffin-sized cages, unable to move or turn with dirty catheters inserted directly into their gall bladders.Mary learned that thousands of bears were being held in these horrifying conditions throughout Asia, regularly milked for their bile to feed the demandfor bear bile used in Traditional Asian Medicine (TAM). Gall bladders and bile have been used in TAM for centuries, however the commercial farming of bears began much more recently in Korea during the 1980s so that the bears could be milked for their bile repeatedly throughout their lives.

The next day, Mary drew upa petition and stood at the entrance of the local shopping mall collecting signatures to help "Free the Bears". Within months, she had thousands ofsignatures, a regular group of like-minded supporters who formed into a committee, and plans were made to build on the momentum that had gathered into a force to help bears throughout the world. On 23 March 1995 Free the Bears Fund was registered as a not–for-profit charitable organization in Perth,Australia. Word of Mary’s work spread as she delivered petitions to the Chinese Embassy in Canberra surrounded by schoolchildren and organised raffles, film nights and other events to raise awareness about the plight of Asia’s bears.Memberships and merchandise were sold to raise funds for overseas projects as requests for help started to arrive in the post.

One such request from an Australian businessman, John Stephens, led to Mary learning about the plight of the Sun bear, the world’s smallest and least-studied bear species. John Stephens had rescued a number of bears from Cambodian restaurants where they faced being butchered for bear paw soup and was keeping the rescued bears in the garden of his property in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Unfortunately now his work was bringing him back to Australia and the bears needed a new home. Mary organised for the Sun bears to be brought to Australia to start a regional breeding programme and, recognising that there were more bears in need of help in Cambodia, began construction of the Cambodian Bear Sanctuary at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre.[2] This is now the world’s largest sanctuaryfor Sun bears and educates hundreds of thousands of Cambodians about the threats facing their wild bear populations each year.

Further requests for help arrived and Free the Bears was soon involved in projects throughout Southeast Asia and even further afield. A telephone call from Maneka Gandhi in India led to Free the Bears joining Wildlife SOS and International Animal Rescue in the seemingly impossible challenge of rescuing India’s "dancing" bears. The first group of 25 rescued bears entered the Agra Bear Rescue Facility on ChristmasEve of 2002. Over the next seven years Free the Bears provided seed money for more than 500 families to abandon the practise of "dancing" bears and adopt new sustainable livelihoods. Less than seven years after the first "dancing" bears were rescued, the last of India’s "dancing" bears was handed over into the sanctuary[3] and the sight of bears being dragged on ropes through the streets of India was consigned to the past.[4]

Greater challenges lie ahead for Free the Bears as the organisation strives to halt the spread of bear bile farming and protect wild bears from the threat of an illegal wildlife trade worth billions of dollars that is driving species towards extinction faster than ever before. With bears in each country facing a unique set of issues that threaten their future, Free the Bears employs a range of strategies including environmental education, conservation research and strengthened law enforcement to ensure that it achieves its mission to protect, preserve and enrich the lives of bears throughout the world.[5]

References

  1. ↑ About Us. Free The Bears Fund, Inc.
  2. ↑ Christian Science Monitor Mary Hutton frees Asia's endangered bears from lives of torment
  3. ↑ BBC News 19 December 2009 Last Indian dancing bear set free
  4. ↑ "Win-win as grandma bears down to save dancing animals" Sydney Morning Herald, 1 February 2010
  5. ↑ Free the Bears 2011/12 Annual Review

See also

External links