Free The Bears - Moon bears and sun bears

About FREE THE BEARS (source : Free The Bears)

Founded by Mary Hutton in 1995, Free the Bears is a non-profit organisation based in Perth, Western Australia, dedicated to protecting bears throughout the world. We currently work in six countries throughout Asia where bears are illegally captured to be butchered for their body parts, turned into medicine or bear paw soup or incarcerated in bile farms.

The aim of Free the Bears fund is to protect, preserve and enrich the lives of bears throughout the world.

We seek to achieve this by:

• Funding and facilitating conservation and rehabilitation projects

• Preservation and reservation of areas of natural habitat with the aim of conserving bio-diversity

• Encouraging harmonious and respectful animal-human relationships by facilitating profitable and sustainable alternatives to the illegal wildlife trade.

• Empowering indigenous people and communities through training initiatives which enable indigenous communities to support themselves in a sustainable manner through responsible custodianship of the bear and its environment.

• Providing information, fostering awareness, and facilitating education with regard to threats facing the global bear population

• Providing international support and sponsorship for individuals involved with the preservation and conservation of bears

• Supporting the instigation of new, the review of existing, and the enforcement of appropriate, wildlife legislation to prevent extortion of rare and endangered species as a result of the illegal wildlife trade

• Funding and creation of new sanctuaries as required and continual maintenance of existing bear sanctuaries and the physical and mental wellbeing of their occupants

SANCTUARY IN CAMBODIA

The sanctuary is located at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre, 40km from the capital Phnom Penh. Twenty one forested enclosures have been built over 7 hectares to house a mixture of Sun bears and Asiatic black bears of different ages and personalities.

Our bears have been: 

-   Rescued from restaurants where they would have been butchered and served as bear paw soup to diners

-   Confiscated from hotels and restaurants where they were caged for the amusement of guests and tourists

-   Seized from the black market where their gallbladders and other parts may have been used for traditional medicines or souvenirs

-   Saved from poachers selling orphaned cubs as exotic pets or as status symbol

-   Illegally smuggling bears into neighbouring countries for use in bear bile farms

-   Donated by owners who have neglected them as pets and no longer want them

-   Freed from snare traps set in the forests to capture animals

VOLUNTEER PROGRAM

Volunteers can come year round to help the keepers in their daily tasks.

Here are some missions you are likely to make :

- work with the keepers giving out the daily feeds and cleaning the enclosures,

- building new enrichments,

- repairing and maintaining bears enclosures,

- maintenance of the area surrounding the enclosures.

Obviously, direct physical contact is not possible as these are large wild animals and can potentially be dangerous.

Price : 550$ for the first week and 350$/week afterwards : 100% of this fee goes directly to help the bears.

You will be accomodated in a very confortable house with a swimming-pool.

For more information and an application form, please contact us at volunteer@freethebears.org or visit or website for more information :

Volunteer

http://www.freethebears.org/index.php/help-the-bears/volunteer

We visited Free The Bears at the Tat Kuang Si sanctuary in Laos and did some construction work: extension of an old enclosure, repairs inside the dens, construction of wooden platforms for the tourists and many other small repairs... We stayed there 5 months and had a wonderful time with the team. Lao people are reliable and brave. We had the same feeling with the Cambodian team in Phnom Tamao, even though we stayed only 3 weeks. Time went very quickly, but we could all the same do some improvements in the children playground area. As a matter of fact, Matt, the director of Free The Bears, wanted the children to play in an environment where they can learn about wildlife, which is a very good idea to make the youngest generation sensitive to the preservation of the flora and fauna. We didn't finish everything but hope that the future volunteers will do this with the team.

In parallel with our mission in Tat Kuang Si, we made a movie in french, english, korean and chinese to inform about the bear bile problem and the mission of Free The Bears. This movie should be broadcast at Tat Kuang Si sanctuary to inform the visitors, especially the chinese and the korean people who don't speak english.

Regarding the price, you may wonder why you have to pay to volunteer. This price includes accomodation, food, transportation and the staff in charge of volunteers, but also includes the support for this NGO to continue its bear protection mission. 

Around The Rock : Construction of an enclosure for Free The Bears NGO

Film made during our ecovolunteer mission in the bear rescued center of Free The Bears in Tat Kuang Si, Lao PDR. For more information : http://www.around-the-rock.com/ ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pcVA-MfE2Q&feature=youtu.be

Pictures taken in Phnom Tamao, Cambodia

Pictures taken in Tat Kuang Si sanctuary