Few people have transformed compassion into action as powerfully as Jill Robinson, founder and CEO of Animals Asia.
For more than three decades, she has devoted her life to ending the cruel bear bile trade, rescuing hundreds of moon bears and changing attitudes towards animal welfare across Asia. Her work is a story of extraordinary determination, built on the belief that kindness, persistence and education can create lasting change.
Where Wild Things Roam caught up with Jill to chat about the incredible work she and Animals Asia does.
You have spent more than 30 years campaigning to end bear bile farming and improve animal welfare across Asia. What first drew you into this work, and was there one defining moment that changed the course of your life?
The one defining moment was one defining bear. She was caged on a bear bile farm in China when I first saw her during an undercover visit in 1993. As I walked around the dreadful basement full of orange barred cages and miserable bears inside I felt something touch my shoulder. Turning around in shock and fearing I was going to be injured, I came face to face with a female moon bear who was offering me her paw. Without hesitation, I took it. And rather than hurting me, she gently squeezed my fingers and our eyes locked together. I knew then that I’d never see her again, but her message was clear and I left that farm having given her a name (Hong, which means bear in Cantonese) and knowing too that this saddest soul had changed my whole life.
Animals Asia was founded in 1998 after you witnessed the reality of bear bile farming. Looking back, what were the biggest challenges in turning outrage and heartbreak into a long-term, practical movement for change?
There were so many challenges – such as actually starting a charitable organisation in Asia, approaching government departments to determine meeting of minds, and permissions to collaborate on projects, raising funds to build sanctuaries, gathering the expertise we needed to help previously farmed and now physically and psychologically damaged bears. Everything seemed overwhelming. But equally, we were all fueled with a passion and resolve that is difficult to describe. We knew that, once we had bears on our surgery tables, we could understand the reality of this industry better and collaborate towards change.
One priority was ascertaining whether bear bile actually worked as a cure for health problems. And the biggest wake up call was that it does! We talked and worked closely with traditional doctors and established that bear bile contains an essential acid (ursodeoxycholic acid – or UDCA) that can help with chronic liver complaints and other disease, and has been synthesised in the West since the 1950’s, but not from bears. In traditional medicine it’s seen as a “cold” medicine to treat “heat” related issues such as high fevers or inflammation. Now that we knew that natural bear bile was efficacious we also knew that we needed to work with a more understanding perspective. From there we began liaising diplomatically within the traditional medicine community – many of whom thankfully emphasised that multiple herbal and synthetic alternatives could take the place of bear bile for all the illnesses it treats.
Bear bile farming is a difficult issue for many people to fully comprehend. How do you explain the scale and cruelty of the practice to audiences who may be learning about it for the first time?
Bear bile farming was begun in Asia in the 1980’s in an endeavour to protect endangered bears in the wild who were being killed for their whole gall bladders (literally viewed as bags of gold). It was felt that caging and farming bears instead would not only keep them alive, but would help to protect the wild population of bears too. However, keeping bears in grim small cages, without free access to natural light, food or even water is just the start of their often miserable lives. The cruel reality of extracting bile from their gall bladders is also difficult to comprehend, especially when one considers that alternatives are readily available. Year after year, lying on hard metal bars, they are denied basic comforts such as beds of straw, or toys, or any stimulation for their curious intelligent minds – and with little or inadequate medication for when they are sick, their suffering is immense. Some bears can live through this dreadful trauma for decades, while many will die as a result of disease or infection way before their natural lifespan of 30 years or more.
Animals Asia has always focused not only on rescue, but also on changing systems, attitudes and demand. Why is education such a critical part of ending animal cruelty?
Education is at the epicenter of all we do. From the outset we knew that we couldn’t criticise traditional medicine but needed to work with the doctors on alternative paths to promote their philosophy of being in harmony with nature. Today, the doctors are seeing remarkable progress. In China they are beginning to produce “bio-transformed bile” which is described as the mirror image of natural bear bile. While in Vietnam we have seen the production of a herbal balm alternative and the signing of a formal memorandum of understanding with an association of some 65,000 doctors that they will never prescribe or sell bear bile again.
Now this same balm is being produced by a local young vegan business, using herbs also recommended by doctors and grown in the gardens of schools across the country, where it is then given away to the elderly for medical problems such as bruises or aching muscles in free monthly clinics in Vietnam.
This solution based initiative is what has brought the industry to the end of its days.
Your work has involved negotiating with governments, traditional medicine communities, local authorities and the public. What have you learned about creating change in complex cultural and political environments?
We’ve learned most of all that change takes time. But when it’s allowed to evolve and develop, it becomes clear that no-one loses as a result of our collaboration with all parties. Today the government is enjoying praise across the world for ending an industry that has previously compromised the conservation and welfare of endangered species of bears. By truly understanding the costs and benefits and working on alternatives and solutions, all stakeholders are considered, while the bears are now simultaneously rescued and helped.
Many of the bears rescued by Animals Asia have spent years, sometimes decades, in small cages. What does rehabilitation look like once they arrive at sanctuary, and what does recovery teach us about resilience?
Of all the animals in the world, the bear must be one of the most stoic. For the past 30 plus years we’ve rescued over 700 bears, including those we believed had little chance of recovering, and went on to live happy, fulfilled lives. From bears with multiple mobility issues after being caged, to those with heart disease and eye problems as a result of stress, to those with dreadfully rotting and broken teeth, damaged gall bladders, and limbs missing after being illegally trapped in the wild. Every bear is greeted by our most remarkable bear and veterinary team who thoroughly assess their physical and psychological health, and observe them as the individuals they are. As they settle in to quarantine they are immediately offered straw to lie on, free access to water, medication and surgery where required, tasty nutritious food, toys to play with and encouraged simply, to “be bear”. Even during this time, before being integrated with other bears and released into large grassy enclosures, we see their individual characters emerging and celebrate their propensity to forgive. We often say that the bears rescue us, just as much as we rescue them.
The bond between humans and animals seems central to your work. Are there particular rescued bears or moments at the sanctuaries that have stayed with you most deeply?
Every bear has a story – from gorgeous tatty Tatzi who I first saw on a bear bile farm in 1993 and today potters happily around in his enclosure without a care in the world, except perhaps wondering when his next snack will arrive. At 37 years of age we think he might be the oldest moon bear in the world. And then there was brown bear Oliver who was caged for 30 years. He was our original “broken bear” but went on to live and enjoy his days with us for 4 happy summers before saying goodbye. I often remembered a Tolstoy quote when I saw him contentedly pottering around in the grass and clover – or swimming in his cool paddling pool. “Every man and every living creature has the sacred right to the gladness of Spring”. Moon bear Jasper was crushed in a cage for 15 years on the farm, but went on to become the peacemaker of his enclosure for another 15 years – playing in “bear bundles” with his friends, or breaking up the odd bear disagreement and making us laugh with his fun loving character. And then there was Dawn who had what our vet and bear team described as learned helplessness, where she feared that whatever good she experienced, there was something just around the corner that would inevitably bring her harm. Her misery affected us all and many tears were shed seeing her eating and obviously enjoying something really tasty, before then curling up into a ball in the corner of her recovery cage waiting for something bad to happen next. She took months to heal until she finally realised that nothing would hurt her again. Today it’s the most beautiful thing to see her snuffling and foraging with her friends in her grassy enclosure, now fully confident that she is cared for and loved.
Animals Asia also works to improve the welfare of cats, dogs and captive wildlife. How has the organisation’s mission evolved beyond bear rescue while staying true to its original purpose?
Animals Asia was founded with three main missions: to end bear bile farming, to end the consumption of cats and dogs, and to help wild animals in captive situations. It’s always tempting to take on a new project and another, and another but, by focusing on our three goals we can stay true to our values. Today in China there are hundreds of animal welfare groups – and many in Vietnam – working collaboratively and enthusiastically with government departments on all manner of programmes that protect wild and domestic species. We’re proud to be part of how this has evolved over the decades and excited that the authorities are moving in leaps and bounds to protect conservation and biodiversity country wide.
And of course in Vietnam we can celebrate that we have now finally reached one of our founding goals and are on the verge of bringing bear farming to an end.
Animal welfare activism can be emotionally demanding. How do you sustain hope, and how do you encourage your team and supporters to keep going when progress feels slow?
I personally hold a lot of hope given, as said above, that we’re on the cusp of achieving our founding goal this year and ending bear bile farming in Vietnam. I can’t speak for all in our incredible Animals Asia team but know that everyone is excited for the collaboration we have with the government and the community – and we all feel a sense of purpose to keep the promise we made nearly three decades ago. This is what sustains us to see progress for the bears. We also celebrate freedom for elephants too – so far over twenty individuals that we’ve helped the Vietnam government to rescue from elephant riding tourism and who now freely explore a forest they could have only dreamed of previously. This is what progress really feels like.
Lastly readers might like to know that the last bear to be rescued in Vietnam this year will be named Hong, in memory and in honour of the bear I couldn’t save in 1993.
For Australians and global travellers who care about animal welfare, what practical choices can they make to avoid supporting cruelty and help create a more compassionate future for animals?
I think the most practical advice is to please use your eyes and your instincts. If something doesn’t look right or feel right, it probably isn’t right. That innocent elephant ride will have seen the animals cruelly beaten and dominated to allow tourists on his or her back. Come and see our rescued elephants in the forest of Vietnam – making choices of where to go, what to eat, who to hang out with for the first time in their lives. No touching, no feeding, no bathing – just watching them from a distance as they peacefully enjoy their days.
That cup of civet or weasel coffee you buy in Asia – again masking the cruellest industry of animals made to gorge on coffee fruits so that they poop out the stones for a cup of coffee that absolutely has no extra health benefits at all. These poor creatures spend their whole lives caged and farmed for a product totally built on hype and tourist advertising lies.
Please don’t buy traditional medicine products containing endangered and wild animal parts (e.g bear bile, deer horn, snake gall bladders, etc) the suffering for these animals is on a scale almost impossible to describe. In addition, by removing them from the forest, the traders are responsible for disrupting the natural harmony of nature, affecting the fundamental network of ecology and putting other species and humans at risk.
Please join travel companies who truly care – like Adventure World – who put together the most sensational trips, with cruelty free ethics at the heart of everything they do.
Please visit our website www.animalsasia.org and social networks that are chock-full of positive stories promoting how so many bears, elephants, dogs and cats are being helped in Asia and leading indescribably happy lives. We are solution based for both animals and people and I think our reputation and progress defines this.
And of course I have to ask, please support Animals Asia into the future as our programmes continue to commit to our founding goals. Especially this year as we keep our promise – where there is no bear left behind.
