The Free the Bears Fund (FBF) is an Australian charitable wildlife-protection organisation. It was started by Mary Hutton, after she watched a documentary in 1993 on bears kept in small cages for bile farming. The fund was registered as a not-for-profit charity on 23 March 1995. The Free the Bears Fund supports animal welfare projects in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, working with rescued and confiscated Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), Sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), and Sloth bear (Ursus ursinus). A sister charity Free the Bears UK was established in the United Kingdom in 2010.
History and achievements
The organisation informally was formed in 1993 in response to Australian Television program A Current Affair airing a segment containing footage of Moon bears being regularly milked for their bile.
On 23 March 1995 Free the Bears Fund was registered as a not–for-profit charitable organization in Perth,Australia.
The organisation fought for several the Sun bears to be brought to Australia to start a regional breeding programme and, recognising that there were more bears in need of help in Cambodia, began construction of the Cambodian Bear Sanctuary at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre. This is now the world’s largest sanctuary for Sun bears and educates hundreds of thousands of Cambodians about the threats facing their wild bear populations each year.
Further requests for help arrived and Free the Bears was soon involved in projects throughout Southeast Asia and even further afield. A telephone call from Maneka Gandhi in India led to Free the Bears joining Wildlife SOS and International Animal Rescue in the seemingly impossible challenge of rescuing India’s "dancing" bears. The first group of 25 rescued bears entered the Agra Bear Rescue Facility on Christmas Eve of 2002. Over the next seven years Free the Bears provided seed money for more than 500 families to abandon the practice of "dancing" bears and adopt new sustainable livelihoods. Less than seven years after the first "dancing" bears were rescued, the last of India’s "dancing" bears was handed over into the sanctuary and the sight of bears being dragged on ropes through the streets of India was consigned to the past.
Greater challenges lie ahead for Free the Bears as the organisation strives to halt the spread of bear bile farming and protect wild bears from the threat of an illegal wildlife trade worth billions of dollars that is driving species towards extinction faster than ever before. With bears in each country facing a unique set of issues that threaten their future, Free the Bears employs a range of strategies including environmental education, conservation research and strengthened law enforcement to ensure that it achieves its mission to protect, preserve and enrich the lives of bears throughout the world.