Rescued bears finally get their happily-ever-after moment following rescue from bile farm hell 15 March 2019

After more than a decade trapped on bile farms, moon bears LeBON and Sky are safe and have each other – it’s the best their lives have ever been.

When moon bears LeBON and Sky were rescued from bile farms in 2018, they had no way of knowing that their lives were finally about to get better.

Each bear had endured more than 10 years of complete misery, pain and boredom.

In all that time, they had known only an iron cage and a concrete ground. They never walked on grass, felt the sun on their backs, climbed trees or swam in lakes and rivers.

Their days were utterly empty. Their cages were barren. Meals were a metal box filled with rice slops and they had nothing to do but wait for the long syringe which would painfully puncture their belly and suck out their bile for traditional medicine.

When rescuers came, LeBON and Sky had no way of knowing this was the end.

The end of misery, the end of cruelty, the end of boredom – and the beginning of their new lives.

But they know it now.

Today, these beautiful bear friends have each other. They are pain-free, healthy, eat a nutritious diet and spend their days foraging in an outdoor enclosure.

The cub house enclosure where they are temporarily housed is full of items designed to stimulate them and encourage natural behaviours long denied them on the farm.

But there is still something LeBON and Sky don’t know.

They don’t realise that, in time, they will move to an even bigger enclosure. One filled with swimming pools, giant climbing frames, and packed with even more bears whose friendships will enrich every day in sanctuary.

Animals Asia Bear Manager Sarah van Herpt said:

“LeBON and Sky were both so nervous when they first got access to the outside world. They would just pop their heads out, scoop up a few snacks, then retreat back to the familiarity of the dens. But now, everything has changed. They roam all over the enclosure and spend time out there together wrestling on the grass. There is so much more to come for these precious bears, but for now they have each other and are already having the time of their lives.”