FURTHER to the picture of the freed Asiatic bear in the Bolton Evening News on December 17, a very informative heart-rending programme was shown on BBC television on January 2.

The programme showed the plight of some of the 7,000 bears imprisoned in cages in China. In recent years, bear farming has flourished across Korea, China and Vietnam. Each day thousands of bears are "milked" for their bile through crude metal catheters implanted in their gall bladders. They suffer intolerably from confinement in tiny cages no bigger than themselves. Anyone watching the programme will have seen the fear and distress of the bears in the cages.

Jill Robinson, Animals Asia Founder, first uncovered bear farming in 1993 and has worked tirelessly since then in an attempt to bring an end to this horrendously cruel practice. To date almost 100 bears have now been rescued, in an agreement with the authorities in Beijing and Sichuan.

Many have been operated on to remove the catheters, and then, for probably the first time in their lives, they are "freed" into the Sanctuaries constructed by the Animals Asia Foundation, to live out the rest of their lives free from pain and fear. Bolton Support Group are dedicated fund raisers for this cause, and a recent fund raising evening "Carols at the Cottage" in Harwood raised £308. Grateful thanks go to all who supported the event.

B J Walker

Stitch-mi-Lane

Harwood, Bolton