Chefs in Cambodia will have to look elsewhere for certain ingredients after an Australian grandmother saved three endangered Southeast Asian Sun bears bound for their cooking pots. Animal lover Mary Hutton rescued the bears in Cambodia through Perth-based 'Free the Bears Fund', which she started 3 years ago.The Sun bears, named for the yellow crescent on their chest, were destined to become illegal bear paw soup and served to wealthy Koreans and Japanese at restaurants in Phnom Penh,according to the Perth Sunday times. Aged two years, 18 months and 14 months, they would have died slowly and painfully, with their paws cut off while still alive.Remaining body parts would have been sold as aphrodisiacs and ointments.

Two male bears were rescued from cages at Phnom Penh restaurant. The young female was found in a Cambodian village where she was being hand-raised for the restaurant trade. The bears arrived in Perth on Saturday and have been given sanctuary at the Perth Zoo. Mrs. Hutton's fund arranged and financed the bears transfer. The same fund saved another 3 Sun bears from a nasty death last year by transporting them to Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo, believed to be the first legal transfer of animals between Cambodia and Australia. Taronga has begun a captive breeding programme and Perth is set to follow suit, in a bid to build up numbers of the bear which is sought illegally by poachers throughout Southeast Asia.


"Captive breeding programmes will hopefully help the survival of this endangered species," Mrs. Hutton said."But our real aim is to stop the trade and the only way to do this is to pressure the Cambodian government to prosecute the people who are driving it."

Perth Zoo's curator of ungulates and carnivores, Mr Colin Wallbank, said the Sun bears - about the size of a big dog - were in excellent condition."We couldn't have hoped for them to be healthier" Mr.Wallbank said."At least now they are away from the uncertain future of a Cambodian soup pot."




Free The Bears Fund Inc.

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