A team of vets from the UK has given the gift of sight to rescued Moon Bears in China, thanks to pioneering new equipment.
Claudia Hartley and David Donaldson from the UK’s Animal Health Trust (AHT) charity, travelled to the Animals Asia Foundation’s Moon Bear Rescue Centre in Chengdu, China to perform the innovative and life-altering surgery.

The AHT vets operated on ten bears in total, extracting cataracts in some cases and correcting vision in others.

The Moon Bears are rescued from torturous bear bile farms, where their bile is milked for use in Chinese medicines on a daily basis. They are often kept in coffin-sized cages for up to 25 years and denied access to food and water as this increases their bile production. This is a legal state-licensed enterprise in China.

It is believed this practice causes many health issues for the bears. Along with liver cancer, which 44 per cent of rescued bears die with, eye disease is also common.

Snoopy, one of the bears operated on...