Thao, a rant and a rave

this is Thao (previously known as Song Sot - see here
we name our bears on arrival but they are renamed by sponsors later on...
so little Thao needed his ear tag removed today - we are doing a trial in conjunction with another welfare group involved in monitoring bears in Vietnam to develop a better way of keeping track of the so called "legal bears" held in farms here. Its a complicated system - bear farming is illegal here and 6 years ago all bears known to be held in farms were microchipped.... the rule is the farmers can keep their bears as long as they don't take bile... yeah right... but if they're caught, or if we find a bear not chipped it gets confiscated and given to us.... the problem is when a bear stops producing bile the farmers just kills it and sells its parts and puts the chip into another bear.... or they simply keep bears in cages in back yards.....we're looking for ways to tighten up the system... of course working with a government that is corrupt and a culture that does not respect animals makes it difficult to say the least...
ok enough ranting and raving
its been a rough day
Thao's GA was delayed due to a village dog needing a leg amputation (mangled after being hit by something) - many of us are nauseous today from some weird bug... plus I'm very dizzy and wobbly and short of breath I suspect as a side effects of the diuretics (nasty pills.... but is is nice to have my feet back)
but we finally got to Thao, removed his tag and tucked him back into bed...
this is a shot of his chest blaze which is unique in every single bear - like a finger print