There’s a programme on BBC2 on 26th August and 2nd September 2022 at 8pm that you must just not miss!

It’s called Bears About the House. #BearsAbouttheHouse

Conservationist Giles Clark (Big Cats About the House) is off on his biggest mission to date:  he’s taking on the illegal wildlife trade and helping to build a pioneering new bear sanctuary in Laos, South East Asia.

Enter Matt Hunt, CEO of Free the Bears.  Free the Bears is an amazing charity which rescues moon and sun bears and cares for them in bear sanctuaries in Cambodia, Vietnam and Cambodia.  And Matt asked Giles Clark to help for 12 months. 

Visit Free the Bears' website
Please donate if you can and/or spread the word.
Thank you! 

Before long, Giles was needed to step forward and help Mary, a 5 month old sun bear who was rescued after her mother was killed in the wild.  Fragile and malnourished, she needed care at home, and that's what she got.

Visit Free the Bears here to find out more
Thank you

We wish everyone at Free the Bears all the best with the programme, thinking of you
and thank you for all you're doing

DONATE TO FREE THE BEARS
Thank you

Don’t miss it – and if you can make a donation, please donate.

Bears across Asia are sold as trophy pets.  They are used for their body parts in restaurants and processed for traditional Asian medicine. 

The most valued part of a bear is their gallbladder.  It stores bile, a digestive fluid which is thought to have medical qualities. Many bears across Asia are kept in bear farms – this enables their bile to be extracted as needed. 

Giles and the team want to stop this.  They are working with the government to shut these bear bile farms down.

It’s a constant effort, and Free the Bears need your help.  Donations in whatever form will help rescue more bears in need of rescue, and care for those who have been rescued, and who need food, care and enrichment activities.

Ways to help

• Spread the word – a bear necessity, of course!
• Treat the bears to a gift from £9.00
• Treat a human to a bear related gift from £2.00 (including soft toy bears)
• Be a bear carer from £5 a month
• Make a donation, a single one or a monthly donation – one day’s food is £3.00. 
• Sponsor a bear from £238 for a year

Visit Free the Bears' website

It's back! Don't miss this on Channel 5 on Tuesday 14 June 2022.

The programme is called Elephant Hospital and it's the world's largest elephant hospital nestled in the forests of Thailand in Lampang. It's open 24/7 and is a sort of NHS for elephants. The team of highly skilled and very dedicated staff never know what sort of problems the elephants will be arriving with but they all do their very best to help them.  

Paul O'Donoghue and Katheirne Connor head back to the hospital for this new series (four parts).  It cares for over 100 sick, injured or neglected animals every year.  And if the elephants can't come to the hospital, the vets go to the elephants!

This is a heart-warming series with uplifting and unexpected stories, be they treating an elephant with cancer or a baby elephant being fed with a giant milk bottle!  There's an elephant with severe diarrhoea, and a male elephant who has been attacked by another bull elephant.  It's all go, as the incredible team try to help each elephant as best they can. 

Find out more from Channel 5

I am looking for ways to donate to this hospital - watch this space

It's supported by Friends of the Asian Elephant and here is their Facebook page.

Their website is here.

#ElephantHospital 

THANK YOU to everyone at the hospital for all you do for these wonderful elephants. 

The World Elephant Day website has LOTS of information about ways to help elephants, whatever day of the year it is so please take a look at it here.

See our list of elephant conservation charities here

How about an elephant conservation holiday? 
Take a look at the range of choices 
with Responsible Travel

You could adopt an orphan elephant
from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Image ©David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

There’s a charity caring for lost and abandoned pets who urgently need all our help.  

It’s based in Lebanon, and it’s the Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA). The charity has six staff and it relies on volunteers and international donations.  Today, it featured in the Mail on Sunday who ran an article about it and the help it needs.

It houses 850 dogs, 250 cats, three horses, two vervet monkeys and a pelican.

Not only that, the charity’s volunteers give food and medical care to all the strays roaming Beirut.

Dogs and cats in Beirut need help

As you know, there was a huge blast in Beirut in August when 2,700 tons of combustible chemicals stored at the port exploded.

The result was that 200 people were killed.  Thousands more were made homeless.  And BETA’s teams are searching for dogs and cats who were very distressed and ran away from the explosion area.  At the same time, many cats and dogs have been abandoned because of the financial crisis.  BETA estimate there are about 150,000 strays in the city of Beirut. 

BETA has a Crowdfunder

BETA has issued an urgent appeal – they need to complete a new rescue centre.  

With everything that’s going on – the explosion, the economic crisis and COVID-19, progress on the building has been slow.  The fully equipped stable and a monkey enclosure have been built.  Work is going on to finish the dog kennels – and the area for seniors.

£150,000 is urgently needed to finish it for the rescue dogs, cats and other animals before Christmas because they are being evicted from the current shelter.   And there is a need to provide for the animals’ basic needs such as food and medical care and to carry out their daily tasks. 

Please help provide these animals with the safe haven they deserve.  They have been through enough and need help.

If you have a cat or a dog, why not make a donation on their behalf and give cats and dogs in Lebanon a safe haven!

BETA is now a 501(c)3 charity organization registered in the USA. Tax identification number: 83-2075807

Please donate to the crowdfunder with GoFundMe

There’s also a wishlist on BETA’s website and you can find out more about the charity here.