A wonderful new update from Four Paws International! A bear that they rescued last year from a bile farm in Vietnam is now thriving in her new sanctuary home.

This precious sweetheart was rescued last November from severe torture and abuse on a bear farm. Since she was a baby, for ten long years, she had suffered in the bile industry. Malnourished and neglected, she was abused for bile extraction and her front paws had been removed.

The Asian bear bile industry is terribly cruel and forces bears to spend their entire lives in tiny cages, starved, dehydrated, and suffering from multiple diseases. These bears are used for the fluid in their gallbladders, their bile, which is extracted with long, painful needles.The fluid is then used in traditional Asian medicine, despite having no proven medicinal properties.

Even though extracting bile from live animals is illegal in Vietnam, the laws are hardly ever enforced. It is estimated that over 700 bears are suffering on illegal bile farms throughout Vietnam. The bear bile industry is also prevalent throughout the rest of Asia, but the exact extent of it remains unknown.

Luckily, this adorable, sweet bear was rescued and is now thriving at the Four Paws sanctuary in Vietnam. When she was first rescued her name was Hai Chan, which means ‘two legs’ in Vietnamese. This is because her owners had chopped off portions of her front legs, probably so that she could not fight back. But the caretakers at her new sanctuary home decided that instead of focusing on her disabilities they wanted to give her a name that reflected her spirit and personality. So they have since renamed her Nhi Nho, which means cheerful and playful in Vietnamese.

As you can see in the video below, cheerful and playful fits her very well!