Hi everyone! Jigsaw here, all ready to go for 2016! Sal's been super-busy so I've chosen my own puzzle and I reckon it's a beauty! Our favourite animal welfare photographer Peter Yuen snapped this winner when I was out for a stroll in my enclosure, savouring the sweet smell of the soft grass under my feet and the warm sun on my back. It's everything that our previous lives were not: the difference between living behind (and ON) bars in a cage for up to 30 years at a bear-bile farm and this lucky world as a rescued bear, living happily and carefree here with our Animals Asia family... but of course, that's only because YOU care enough to help look after me!

It's a BIG puzzle with 112 pieces of ME - so I will need lots of support!! but 50 pieces are turned over already from early donations and fundraisers. We want to raise $11,000 to cover as much as possible of my annual share of costs at the sanctuary. People ask Sal "surely Jigsaw doesn't EAT that much in a year??" Well, it's true I do like my food but there's lots more to caring for me than supplying my daily meals:

Sal and her friends gave me a mighty push start with their Trash'n'Treasure market day in March, selling $2400+ of donated goodies! Best story-of-the-day was the little bloke who bought a scooter but, when scooting passed later, noticed the BIKE for sale .. an earnest negotiation with his dad ensued, more money changed hands and the lad exchanged his scooter for the bike! He looked great on the scooter but pleased as punch on the bike!! And then along came a young girl and off went the scooter for a second time! Everybody's a winner - but especially me & my bear buddies. So a huge bear-hug Thank You to Sal's team for rising early and creating such a fantastic stall!

Big Woo Hoo to Samford State School in QLD for holding their third annual Endangered Animals fuNraiser - they hold a "come as your favourite animal" gold coin day - how cool! (heh! heh! maybe we bears could have a "come as your favourite human" day!). As well as me, the school sponsors a further 4 endangered species! This year their donation of $400 turned over 4 pieces of my 2016 puzzle. It's not just about the money raised: through their studies the students have a genuine concern for the plight of us animals and elect to continue their sponsorship every year! You guys rock!

41 bears were rescued in Vietnam in 2015? That means an entirely new double bear house (with two enclosures opening off it) needs to be built to accommodate them, at a cost of US $450,000 not to mention the ongoing upkeep of the bears themselves. Read more here

The 2015 rescues meant the end of bear-bile farming in Quang Ninh province (location of the famous tourist attraction Halong Bay). This was effected by the Prime Minister himself!

2015 saw the historic signing of a pledge between Animals Asia & the Traditional Medicine Association of Vietnam to end bear-bile prescribing by 2020 ....which could result in many more bears needing new homes

See what a difference 6 months makes to a rescued moon bear. Tuffy was rescued during our visit in September last year. All the recent arrivals looked pitiful and anxious especially when humans came near. Six months on, with his damaged gall bladder removed and three rotten teeth extracted, Tuffy has finally been able to go outside. This surely is the moment when he realised he was never ever going back to a bile farm. (it's only a short video but you must watch till the end - very funny!) He is literally jumping for Joy!