Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos
Two wondrous experiences
Fantastic 15 day FTB adventures amongst the culture, the people and the animals of incomparable, intriguing, intoxicating Asia.
Selling fast: click here for details.
Animal welfare history
A coalition of international conservation and animal welfare rescue groups,in tandem with Indian Government bodies, has made animal welfare history by taking the last ‘dancing’ bears off the streets of India; bringing an end to a centuries-old tradition that has inflicted terrible cruelty on thousands of highly endangered Sloth bears.
Mary Hutton, Founder of Free The Bears Fund, a charity based in Western Australia has just returned from India where she brought the last ‘dancing’ bear into the Bannerghatta Sanctuary in Bangalore, India. Raju, a ‘dancing’ bear will never again have to entertain crowds on the streets in the hot Indian sun. “This is the very last bear to be rescued from the roads of India, the very last one and this is the end of the trade” said Mary.
“Free The Bears Fund has played an extremely important role in the rescuing of Sloth bears in funding Wildlife SOS, our partners in India, to actually rescue the bear. By giving $2,000 AUD ‘seed’ money to the Kalandar gypsy owner of the bear, it has offered him an alternative livelihood—rather than walking the roads of India with a bear on the end of a rope. Raje Saab, Raju’s handler said he is looking forward to a new job with the money he has been given.
For the past 7 years Free The Bears Fund members, supporters, sponsors and volunteers have dug deep to raise the desperately needed funds to bring this trade to an end. Together with our coalition partner (International Animal Rescue, UK) Free The Bears Fund donates the very necessary funds to feed and care for the bears, pay the vets and the keepers.
Kartick Satyanarayan (Director and co-founder of Wildlife SOS) runs all four sanctuaries in India: Agra, West Bengal, Bophal and Bannerghatta. Together with co-founder Geeta Seshamani, he has worked with the Kalandars to ensure the Kalandar Rehabilitation Program ran smoothly. The program entailed providing ‘seed’ money to the Kalandar while the licence to ‘dance’ a bear was handed to the authorities and the bear surrendered into one of the sanctuaries.
Kartick also liased very closely with the various Indian Government departments. This project would not have been possible without their help and support. Our other coalition partner (One Voice, France) provides funds for the anti-poaching project.
Over 500 ‘dancing’ Sloth bears have been rescued solely by Free The Bears Fund and donations and support has come from wonderful caring people Australia-wide, the UK, USA, and many other countries
“Although the ‘dancing’ bear trade has come to an end, we still need support to keep these bears in peace and give them a quality of life they so richly deserve” said Mary. “They have suffered torture as cubs to train them to ‘dance’ suffered cruelty and misery on the hot and dusty roads of India and been starved for years. The best thing about the Kalandar Rehabilitation Program is it is a win-win situation: a win for the Kalandar and his family and a win for the bears”.
There is a bear in a small cage. Feel his confusion, sadness and despair.
There are people who live in a country with no welfare system, the only food, shelter and income, that which they provide for themselves. These people too are in a cage: a cage constructed from poverty.
There are people thousands of miles away who feel anger and despair when they think of captive bears, and the countries that exploit their wildlife. Counter productive feelings that slowly form into the bars of a cage, which holds both heart, and mind prisoner.
In a small area in Asia people work to save bears. Once poachers, they have been given the opportunity to protect the very animals they once sought to capture. Such projects radiate hope for the future: hope for sustainability of both wildlife and community alike. Hope, which allows us to escape that first cage: that of mental despair.
In doing so we can approach the second cage, insert the key and release the village from its cage of poverty. That which once held the desperate and poor is removed to reveal people employed and able to feed their families, functioning as a proud, self-respecting part of the community.
Take the hand of the local villager and together approach the third cage, that which holds the bear. As he is liberated see the bear stretch and run: safe and protected from now on.
Free the Bears Fund challenges you to liberate your mind, to explore sustainable alternatives towards the illegal wildlife trade and treat with compassion those, who by the very situation of their birth, find themselves in an impoverished and desperate situation.
Join us as we implement proactive conservation initiatives, which aim to protect, preserve and enrich the lives not only of bears, but those who live alongside them. By combining compassion for our fellow man with a belief in the dignity and beauty of nature, Free the Bears Fund knows that this approach is the key to the future!
Join us as we use this key to Unlock the Cage of Darkness....
|
