February 2009 Caesar explores her new den......... ************************************************************ Winter is here Sunday, December 14, 2008, 11:17 PM You know winter has arrived in Chengdu when Caesar starts to dig – and yesterday she dug for China. Bear Manager Donata radioed everyone on the walkie-talkie to come over and watch as our formidable and very beautiful brown bear chose what she obviously thought was a suitable spot by the fence-line and set to work. This wasn't how we saw it at all. My heart was in my mouth as she dug lower and lower into the ground, pausing every few minutes to back out of her home-made den in order to level the earth mountain growing outside. I knew it should be OK really – remembering that when the enclosures were designed by Boris, our China Construction Development Director, the cement had gone a metre underground just to be "safe" – but my goodness Caesar was definitely testing it now. As she dug, I couldn't help remembering her life on the bear farm and the contrast to what it is four years on. She and her bear farm "room mate" Emma (a boy with a girl's name) had been cruelly shackled in a "full-metal jacket", in a cage, on the farm in Tianjin, northern China – for nine long years. I knew it should be OK really – remembering that when the enclosures were designed by Boris, our China Construction Development Director, the cement had gone a metre underground just to be "safe" – but my goodness Caesar was definitely testing it now. As she dug, I couldn't help remembering her life on the bear farm and the contrast to what it is four years on. She and her bear farm "room mate" Emma (a boy with a girl's name) had been cruelly shackled in a "full-metal jacket", in a cage, on the farm in Tianjin, northern China – for nine long years. The day of their rescue was bitterly cold – freezing rain driving down as our team cut the bars of the cages apart with blow torches as Caesar and Emma lay sleeping under anaesthetic. Then a quick health-check before being loaded into robust transport cages for a three-day road-trip – over land, over mountains, over night. It was one of the most incredible journeys of my life with Boris and Howard (our Bear Team Supervisor) – both still with us today – leading the whole operation professionally and effortlessly. The scenery as we drove from town to town and village to village was breathtaking – beautiful forests, snow-capped mountains and babbling rivers along the way - we even passed a cat on a hot tin roof! The Chinese media followed throughout and as we drove into each town the villagers would pour out of their houses to see the spectacle of two huge bears rolling their way "home". It's clear that this is all long forgotten by Caesar, who was definitely on a mission today. In a few weeks, she will be moved into our new construction – "Caesar's bunker" – where she can dig dens to her heart's desire and stay outside for as long as she likes. For now, she'll have to be content snuggling up at night in her hanging-basket bed. The team that looks after Caesar couldn't resist taking a closer look at her handiwork. Here's Li Ping, Zeng Zhi Pong, Zhang Jinguo, Tao Hongliang, Ou Jun, and Bear Manager Donata Baars checking out the hole. So for now, our team will fill in the rather impressive hole, acknowledging that, in her normal and very determined style, she'll be back digging for China again tomorrow. ************************************************************ Early 2004 a Shanghai journalist exposed an unlicensed farm in Tianjin where two miserable bears were suffering from an archaic and illegal "full metal jacket" form of bile extraction. Following an invitation from the Government, a first inspection of the farm left Jill Robinson reeling in shock at the sight of two huge, caged and angry bears, wearing painful vests made of canvas and steel. Worn permanently, the vests were protecting a long rubber catheter leading from the bears' gall bladder to a metal box, where a fluid bag collected their bile. Whilst Moon Bears can be astonishingly aggressive, they cannot possibly compare with the rage of a 250kg Brown Bear and Black/Brown Bear hybrid, who were now too violent to "milk". As they angrily slashed their huge paws at the rusty cage bars, she realised she had quite a job on her hands. Endless meetings followed, ironing out logistics with Government officials who were keen to close this last farm and declare Tianjin a "bear farm free zone". The task ahead was daunting - transporting two massive bears thousands of kilometres by road - but finally an agreement was reached, and we were on our way to collect our two new family members. Boris and his workers were faultless in their preparation for the arduous journey home - constructing large, "bear proof" transport cages firmly secured inside a specially customised truck. On a cold, wet, windy Saturday in Febuary, in sub-zero conditions, the team gathered in the middle of the countryside in Tianjin, at the bear farm, where our Veterinary team immediately began to deal expertly with a frightening and potentially dangerous situation. As Gail stood there with her "jab stick", I was sick with nerves that a sharp injection of anaesthetic into the muscle would see the bears bouncing through the rusty cage floor with rage. But incredibly, both bears remained magically calm, as if they understood that their new lives had now begun.       As the first bear slipped into a deep sleep, Boris and his team skillfully used blow torches to cut away the thick metal bars, just inches away from the fully conscious bear in the next cage. Placed in the cage as a 1 year old cub, this now enormous 10 year old bear was 4 sizes too big to be pulled out through the cage door. After a nail-biting 45 minutes, in impossibly cramped conditions, a large enough hole was cut and the bear finally dragged free. As health checks began, shocked officials and Chinese media gasped in horror as Gail unlocked the bears' disgusting metal vests to reveal the dirty latex catheters and fluid bags which had collected the bile from their gall bladders over the past 9 years. The following day we set off on the long journey home, tailing the truck containing the two bears and Howard - their special escort. We drove for 3 days and nights, carefully negotiating snowy mountain passes and stopping every few hours to feed our new charges. Over those long days and nights, Howard was a bears best friend - with "OK" and "Hau cher" all the words I needed to hear, as it meant that the bears were content and enjoying their food. Finally, tired, bedraggled, but very, very proud, we arrived at the Sanctuary at last, to be greeted by a barrage of Government officials and Chinese press who had followed the story of the rescue since it began. That evening, news of the arrival of the now famous Tianjin bears hit television screens all over the country and the following day newspapers nationwide carried the story! Postscript July 2004 Both Emma and Caesar are now fully recovered, having received major surgery and masses of tender loving care and are safe and sound with our resident 114 happy, healthy bears in the Sanctuary. One person equally horrified by their condition was Asia's top pop diva and actress, Karen Mok - now our first China Bear Rescue Ambassador. At the Sanctuary she announced to China's media that after hearing of the bears plight she had received "a calling" and knew she must help. Standing next to Government officials she stated her belief that bear farming should end and called on the people of China to join her towards a more compassionate era for animals in the country. With our Chinese language Education packs now completed, we are commencing mass circulation of these to literally thousands of people across China - in particular to Traditional Chinese Medicine University Doctors and students who are now signing on in droves to our escalating campaign: "Rescue Black Bears - Give up Bear Bile Usage"! A health check for Caesar today Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 03:17 PM Report taken from Jill's blog Animals Asia official site "You don’t mess around with a gigantic brown bear like Caesar when she’s due a routine health check. I remember only too well her rescue some four years ago when she bounced violently in her rusting cage on the bear farm in Tianjin and I thought she would crash through. Wearing a grotesque, painful full-metal jacket, which secured a metal box and crude latex catheter that snaked itself into her gall bladder, Caesar was understandably a very unhappy bear. Back safely with us and loving her enclosure and pool, Caesar’s scars have all but disappeared and today she is an astonishingly beautiful (and formidable) bear. The examination is essential owing to the high incidence of liver cancer we’re finding in previously “tapped” bears on the farms, and Caesar, like all the other bears on site, gets a quick once-over every two or three years. Weighing in at a humongous 271kgs, Caesar is all muscle and all woman! Finally, a quick team picture and a group sigh of relief that all went well. Within a few hours Caesar was resting comfortably back in her den after removal of one tiny rotten incisor, a full ultrasound and routine procedures. And she’s in robustly good health. Job well done vet and bear team" www.animalsasia.org