Special bears: Vandrew blowing bubbles (at Animals Asia's Vietnam Bear Sanctuary)

In October 2015, our Founder and Director visited Animals Asia's Vietnam Bear Sanctuary as part of the Advancing Bear Care conference. This is a bear with every right to feel hard done by. When rescued from a bile farm in Vietnam’s Halong Bay in July, 2010, Vandrew was in a terrible state. It’s not uncommon for bile farm bears to be missing paws as a result of hunter’s snares, but Vandrew was missing an entire limb. His rugged good looks and missing limb – so reminiscent of Animals Asia’s first rescued bear Andrew in China – made Vietnam Andrew, or Vandrew. the obvious choice of name for this beautiful bear. He was also suffering from chronic pain from an irreversibly damaged eye while his gall bladder and even his liver were brutally scarred from repetitive puncturing of the abdomen to extract bile. With a ravaged gall bladder and infected eye removed, five years down the line, Vandrew is a totally different bear from the poor soul so mistreated on a bile farm. He may be missing an arm, an eye and a gall bladder, but this bear still has an enormous heart and a perfect smile - he also does a neat line in these "crocodile impersonations" and loves blowing bubbles. Words: Animals Asia The Winton Foundation for the Welfare of Bears was launched on the memorable date of 10/10/10. The Foundation is working through fund and awareness raising to assist with new and established projects around the world to help bears. We are not tied to any one organisation but work in partnership with other groups, where applicable for the greater good of the bear and to allow us to be as effective as possible. We are part of the global network working to help end the abuse and exploitation of bears throughout the world and to provide care for them following rescue from such atrocities as bear farming, bear baiting, and dancing bears to name a few. To see how our funds have been distributed to date, please go here: http://wintonbearfoundation.org/contact/the-honey-pot#funds