Animals Are NOT Performers

Goodbye to this kind of cruelty in Shanghai

Dear Fiona,

Fantastic news! Following our Executive Director Annie Mather's visit to Shanghai Wild Animal Park which documented the cruelty of the "Shanghai Animal Olympics" and our letters and calls of protest to the Mayor and local authorities, the event has now been cancelled!

The Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted a park official, Su Feilong, as saying that a negative public response had prompted the cancellation. "The games never caused any trouble before, but we received complaints this year, so we stopped them," Su was quoted as saying.

Those complaints came from compassionate animal lovers like you who were sickened by our pictures and information about these cruel and degrading "performances" and wrote in to the Embassies and China National Tourist offices in your country, calling on them to end the shows.

Thank you on behalf of all in the team of Animals Asia for proving that, together, our voices, our actions, can make a difference.

Animals Asia will be writing to those same authorities thanking them for their leadership in compassion towards animals in entertainment who have the right to be wild. We will also be asking if we can now provide a permanent home for the poor blind bear that was forced to stand for hours at a time while tourists posed with him for photographs.

Again, we are so proud to have friends and supporters like you who have helped us in this significant step to end cruelty in the name of entertainment. Thank you!

Warmest wishes,
Jill
Jill Robinson MBE
Animals Asia Foundation
Hong Kong


It breaks my heart to see animals 'performing'. No matter whether in a circus, show, sea-life park. The only circus I'll go to is Cirque du Soleil. I just hate to see it. I've never even trained my dog to do 'tricks'.

You may have noticed this link in my sidebar, it's a charity I've supported for many years.

Apart from these bears in Shanghai, Jill and her team have been responsible for rescuing countless moon bears from a life-time of the most atrocious treatment (caged into metal frames less than the size of their bodies, limbs sometimes removed) as part of the bile-milking industry in China.

They also do amazing work in liberating thousands of dogs from the food markets of Guangzhou. Though I have to admit, I can't look at that area of the website, nor read those newsletters, the pictures are too disturbing to me. I've lived here a long time, long enough to have seen too many of those images, many of which still haunt me to this day.

If you have a moment, please visit the website. (strong warning re contents in the 'Friends.....or Food?' tab)