Meeting Morgan and the crew on a mundane little road somewhere North(ish) of Vietnam turned out to be an experience of opposite emotions; it was awesome to see him on the actual adventure, with the crew following closely behind. I jumped on the back of the bike and we took off to someplace where apparently they kept Moon Bears. This is where all good feelings dropped by the roadside.
Being confronted with such a weird, living hell for these animals is impossible to describe – it is on a level of nothing I have ever seen before. the smell, sounds and heart-breaking scenes were a total antithesis to the welcoming smile of the lady who owned the farm….. it is too easy to get angry with the actual person making direct profit off this barbaric act of extended cruelty – because if you realise that her bags of money would not be so easy to come by without the so-called ‘tourists’ who travel from far and wide to buy the bile. They often come from very progressive countries – where this practice is illegal, and so they already know of the ethical implications of buying bile from the bear farmers. Food for thought.
Jill, and all the people from Animals Asia, work tirelessly against this horrible situation and still manage to keep a beautiful, humanistic attitude towards everyone and i really wish the world had more people like them.