First the letter from Jill Robinson founder of Animals Asia:

Hi again Mike - just a quick update sending you our press release from
yesterday - and hoping we can hook up in July on the west coast when I'm
there for the conference and some other presentations, take
care, Jill

*************************


ANIMALS ASIA FOUNDATION'S "CHINA BEAR RESCUE" SEES FREEDOM FOR 46 MORE
FARMED MOON BEARS

Forty six farmed Moon Bears in China came closer to taking their first
steps to freedom as the cruel facilities which held them captive for
years were recently closed down.  Transported by road on the back of
trucks, sick, stressed and fighting for life in their tiny wire crush
cages, the bears arrived at the Animals Asia China Bear Rescue
Sanctuary, where 139 bears have already seen their lives change beyond
all recognition since October 2000.  Working in freezing, wet
conditions, the team gently and professionally offloaded 11 bears on
Monday 17th January (with the final bear being lifted off the truck just
after midnight), and then repeated the operation as a further 34 bears
were rescued the next day.

With one bear arriving earlier in the month from the northern province
of Laoning, the number of bears now waiting for urgent corrective
surgery to repair years of damage on the farms, is 46 - making a total
of 185 bears rescued since Animals Asia began their historic "China Bear
Rescue" just over four years ago.

Despite China's bear farming regulations which allow only the
"free-dripping fistula" method of bile extraction from captive bred
bears, these CITES Appendix I endangered species were clearly victims of
catheter, free-drip, and "fake" free-drip techniques, whilst some were
also missing limbs as a result of being illegally caught in the wild by
snares or leg-hold traps.  Milked like machines for their bile fluid
(despite the fact that the end products can easily be replaced by
effective herbal and synthetic substitutes) the fortunate rescued
animals represent only a small percentage of the estimated 7,000 plus
bears held on over 200 farms across the country.

The Animals Asia team were shocked to witness that many of the bears
were wedged in cages so tightly that they could not turn or move around.
All had injuries and physical problems so severe that the Veterinary
team planned emergency health checks within hours of seeing them in. 
Hooting pitifully into the night and beside themselves with fear and
pain, cubs, middle aged and elderly bears presented graphic evidence
against the farmers claims that their new methods of bile extraction are
"humane".                                                                                           

Conducting 23 emergency health checks within four days, the Animals Asia
Veterinary team, led by Dr. Gail Cochrane, discovered that a new
"fake-free dripping" technique of bile extraction is being tested out on
the bears today.  Rather than a fistula - or "hole" in the abdomen which
was previously lauded as a state-of-the-art technique (but which in
reality has been killing the bears in huge numbers), the farmers are now
inserting a clear perspex catheter which is almost impossible to see,
unless the abdomen is shaved and examined close-up.

Dr. Cochrane emphasized the team's disgust with what they had found
saying:  "Not surprisingly, the free-drip method, which is nothing more
than a hole carved into the abdomen, is responsible for massive
infection and pain and a high mortality rate on the farms.  This new
fake free-drip method is now attempting to correct past problems by
using a perspex tube (which is against China's current regulations on
bear farming) and which continues to cause suffering and death for
farmed bears.  In addition, the farmers continue to de-claw the bears,
cut away their canine teeth and trap them in the wild - we have weeks,
if not months, of work ahead to correct this abuse."

Animals Asia Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson MBE echoed Dr. Cochrane's
concerns saying: "This practice and every other technique we have
studied on nearly 200 farmed bears over the past four years is part of a
barbaric and unnecessary industry and has no place in veterinary
practice or within the remit of respected Chinese pharmacopoeia.  The
people who perform and promote this butchery on living, sentient animals
should be ashamed, as should those who continue to buy and consume the
end product once informed of the humane alternatives."

Earlier in the week Asian superstar, Karen Mok Man Wai, "the Madonna of
Asia", together with volunteer vet nurses, Chinese journalists and
members of the public were visibly shocked with suffering they had never
before witnessed as the bears arrived - with all committing to join
Animals Asia and help to end bear farming by the Beijing Olympic Games
in 2008.    Karen Mok stated that she also had the backing of other
celebrities like Jackie Chan, and made a public appeal for supporters in
China to join her in a pledge which would "Rescue Black Bears - and end
bear bile usage, once and for all".
 

This letter is from Annie Mather, media director for Animals Asia, in response to my asking her how the prints were selling: