I am delighted to pass over my Blog today to Christa, our Germany Director – and my endless thanks to Denise in Luxembourg for her years of passion and help for the bears. She, like so many friends across the globe, has been moved by the story of our recent rescue in China and has inspired the students of the Robert Schumann School in Luxembourg to rally behind the bears. They have done an amazing job as you can read from Christa here:

“It always fills me with great joy and gratitude to see the commitment of our supporters, especially when it involves children who care about the suffering of animals. On 22 February, students at the Robert Schumann School in Luxembourg presented a fantastic cheque for €1,100 to Denise Kirchen, our tireless friend and representative.

“Late last year, Denise was invited to talk to the students in classes 701, 702 and 705 about the moon bears in China and their sad fate and endless suffering. After an exhibition and screening of our DVD describing our work, the 60 students were so moved that they immediately decided to make a contribution to support the bears.

“Guided by their teachers, they baked a huge pile of bear-cookies and hand sewed their own stuffed bears to sell during the school’s Christmas market. They also put together an exhibition of bear-related artwork and Animals Asia photographs.

“The proceeds of this wonderful action was a whopping €1,100, which was immediately transferred to the donation account of Animals Asia in Luxembourg to provide much-needed medical care and toys for our six newly rescued bears in Chengdu.

“Dear students of classes 701, 702 and 705 – thank you so much for your creativity! You did a wonderful job and made an important contribution for the bears. Bear hugs also to the teachers for their commitment to animals and, of course, especially to our own Denise Kirchen!”

Thank you all – so very much – for being on this journey, until bear farming ends....