Live The Dream Travel are proud to be sponsoring Animals Asia moon bear Bong Bong for 2025. As our charity of choice for the year we are fundraising to provide Bong Bong and her roommates the very best chance of recovering well from her traumatic experience as a captive bear in a bile farm.
Sanctuaries in China and Vietnam provide havens for bears to receive treatment, care and rehabilitation. These facilities also gather vital evidence of the effects of bile extraction. The Animals Asia world-class bear rescue centres in Chengdu, China and in Tam Dao and Bach Ma in Vietnam provide the bears with comfortable dens and semi-natural enclosures where they are able to recover in safety and spend the remaining years of their lives in the company of other bears. To date nearly 700 bears have been rescued.
The adult bears suffer from various physical ailments, such as gall bladder damage, scarring of internal abdominal structures and gall stones from clumsy bile extraction methods; broken and infected teeth from inappropriate diet; missing feet or limbs from being caught in the wild; a range of eye diseases; stunted bone growth, arthritis and fractures; heart disease; tumours; thickened and cracked feet from standing on bars; traumatic wounds and injuries; skin and ear infections; hair loss from rubbing; and body conditions ranging from emaciation to obesity from being kept immobile and fed a poor and inappropriate diet. On top of this, many are also anxious, angry and frustrated.
Despite the poor condition of many of the bears, most make a good recovery. This is partly because of their stoic and resilient nature, but also because of the professional care they receive from the Animals Asia veterinary teams, on-site managers, workers and expert volunteers, and the extensive behavioural and veterinary management program.
The centres also provide a focal point for public education on bear bile farming and bear conservation and welfare in Vietnam.
Sanctuaries provide direct employment for over 250 Chinese and Vietnamese people in areas such as bear care, horticulture, food preparation and security. Several hundred local people are employed indirectly through services and construction.
So while we know that the bile farming cruelty continues to happen we are doing our bit to help stamp it out and care for the bears that are thankfully rescued.
We hope that our Live The Dream Travel Community will help us with our fundraising this year. Thank you for your support!
