(MY) on Jill Robinson's animal rescue

[Guest guest]

Saturday May 9, 2009 - The Star Great animal rescues By LOUISA LIM

 

*Asia’s animal abusers have finally met their biggest adversary in the form of

Jill Robinson.*

 

There’s something indescribably poignant about watching 50-year-old Jill

Robinson at work. She knelt on the dirt floor and gave each dog a big hug.

She spoke gently to them as she would her own child, a smile stretching

across her face.

 

We were in the middle of a scorching day at the Furry Friends Farm, but

Robinson didn’t seem to mind. Some of the dogs did, however, and decided to

forgo the opportunity of welcoming their honoured guest in order to take a

dip in the nearby river.

A disabled lad and his new best mate.

 

Little did they know that she — just like the owner of Furry Friends Farm,

Sabrina Yeap — played an instrumental role in their lives.

 

Besides being the founder of animal welfare charity Animals Asia, Robinson

is also the pioneer of Doctor Dog, an animal-assisted therapy programme in

Asia.

 

Under the programme, she rescues emaciated canines from the streets and

slaughterhouse-bound trucks and grooms them into a sort of national hero.

 

“We’ve received a growing endorsement from a number of medical and health

professionals. In Hong Kong, there are over 200 dogs currently making

regular visits to 60 different organisations, from hospitals to schools. Our

waiting list continues to grow,” Robinson says on her website.

 

The programme’s impact is most striking in old folks’ homes, where residents

look forward to the visits with great excitement and greet the dogs like old

friends.

Jill Robinson connects easily with animals.

 

“Even though many of the elderly are suffering from the effects of senile

dementia, they can still remember the names of the dogs,” Robinson said.

“We’ve also had a dying cancer patient request a last visit from Dr Dog. It

shows how much these visits have come to mean to the patients.”

 

Incidentally, it was through the programme that Yeap first spoke to

Robinson.

 

“I’m really distressed about the state our stray dogs are in,” said Yeap,

referring to the most recent case in Pulau Ketam, where about 300 stray dogs

were rounded up by the residents and deported to an isolated island to fend

for themselves.

 

Over half of them are already dead, and the residents are shaking their

heads in disbelief that outsiders want to save the animals they so casually

discarded.

 

“They are being persecuted daily because we regard them as pests. I read

about Dr Dog in 2007 and thought ‘What a great idea!’ Finally, here’s

something to help raise the status of our local dogs.”

 

With Robinson’s moral backing, Yeap implemented the programme in Malaysia,

and appointed a gregarious Labrador, Sugar, as its ambassador.

 

Yeap’s volunteers had discovered a scrawny Sugar wandering the alleyways for

scraps of food only a few months before. She belonged to a pet shop nearby,

but was left on the streets when it closed down.

 

She was alone and confused without her pups, all of which have, thankfully,

been sold.

 

“Sugar is very pudgy now. Her size and demeanour make people laugh,” said

Yeap.

 

“She’s been going on visits once a month for two years now. Once we went to

Persatuan Amal Murni and met this mentally handicapped boy who was terrified

of dogs. However, when he met Sugar, he made the effort to touch her. It was

a sight to behold, seeing the dramatic changes that took place within this

little boy.

 

“Since then, he can’t stop talking about his experience. He always looks

forward to the day when Sugar comes back,” Yeap said.

 

*Animal instinct*

 

Robinson is, to put it mildly, one busy woman. Her work schedule is enough

to drive any sane person to the opposite end of the spectrum.

 

Case in point: she was in Kuala Lumpur for just a short day because

Indonesia was scheduled for the very next day.

 

“I lead a nomadic life. I love to travel, but I haven’t been away for a

proper holiday since December 2003. I never spend more than two weeks in any

one place,” she said.

 

Despite her workload, Robinson looked radiant. Though English by birth, she

reminded me of a much nicer, less cattier version of Heather Locklear. The

only giveaway to her age was the air of serenity and wisdom that hung around

her.

 

“You know, Gandhi once said that the greatness of a nation depends on how

the animals are treated,” she said.

 

I nodded my head in agreement, feeling slightly embarrassed for my fellow

countrymen. Robinson was clearly in her element at the farm. She displayed a

passion and sincerity that only another animal lover like Yeap could match.

We spoke about many things, but the conversation soon turned to men and . .

.. Jeffrey Dahmer, the serial killer.

 

“Most men think that being compassionate is not a very macho thing, but I

find men who love animals very sexy,” Robinson declared.

 

Having just separated from her husband of 20 years (they grew apart because

of all the work), she’s now happily single and keeps five dogs and seven

cats for company. It’s important, she said, to educate our children to love

animals for the sake of their own future, if not for the animals themselves.

 

“When he was a kid, Dahmer used to impale the heads of dogs and cats on

sticks. He even skinned and gutted some of the animals and nailed their

bodies to the tree in his backyard,” she pointed out.

 

“Statistics don’t lie. It shows that violent and aggressive criminals are

more likely to have abused animals as children. Apparently, they may be on a

dangerous path that will only get worse if not corrected.”

 

Robinson feels a strong affection towards all animals (“for as long as I can

remember,” she said), but her ground-breaking work with Animals Asia and Dr

Dog actually began with the rescue of Asiatic moon bears in China.

 

*Caging the crescents *

 

Perhaps what’s most surprising was how it all happened out of the blue.

Robinson had simply accompanied a Japanese tour group to a bear farm after

being told about it by a journalist friend. The farm was there to extract

the bile of the bears to be used in traditional Chinese medicine.

 

“While the tour group were being briefed about the benefits of bear bile by

the bile farmer and his wife, I stole away from the group,” she was quoted

in an interview.

 

“I found some steps leading down into the basement and I found myself in a

very dark room. And, really, I could hardly make out too much except that

there were many cages there. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at but

what I did hear were these sort of popping vocalisations. Just popping, pop,

pop, pop.”

 

Little did she realize that she had walked into what she described as “total

hell on earth”.

 

“The conditions were horrific. Thirty-two of these majestic beasts were

packed into cages a few sizes too small. Most of them were a bloody mess

from being stuck behind grilles for years on end, without ever getting the

privilege to ever see the light of day.

 

“There was pulp and nerves where their canine teeth once were, and holes and

tumours the size of a football in their abdomens. They were also clawless,

the result of having had their end digits cut off by farmers so that the

claws would never grow back again.

 

“And this popping vocalization, it’s a nervous sound when a bear is either

deeply unhappy or deeply stressed. The bear was really, I think, believing

that I was there to take its bile.”

 

But as she got closer, magic happened. A bear rested his great big paw on

her shoulder, as if trying to communicate with her.

 

“I did something I shouldn’t have,” she told me. “I returned his touch. But

lucky for me, he was a gentle one. We held each other’s hands. It was then I

knew this was something I wanted to fight for.”

 

Robinson looked momentarily distressed. She never saw the bear again, but it

was evident that the image of him never left her because she continues her

crusade against this borderless crime.

 

She now fondly remembers him as “the bear that started it all”.

 

Animals Asia has gone on to successfully shut down 40 farms by working

closely with the Chinese government. Her work, however, does not end there.

There are still 7,000 bears living this way in China, and another 4,000 in

Vietnam. She doesn’t plan to return home to Nottingham, ever.

 

“I think my life is mapped out to stay in Asia, probably China, on site with

the bears at our sanctuary in Chengdu,” she said.

 

Unfortunately, like all other charitable organisations dependent on public

funding, Animals Asia is feeling the grim force of these turbulent economic

times.

 

“We’re down by 10% in funds, and we expect this figure to slip to 40%. The

economy is not going to let up anytime soon,” she said.

 

With such heavy factors weighing her down, how does she cope?

 

“I’m a great believer in crying,” she replied, surprisingly. “I go home

after the end of a long, hard day and have a good cry.”

 

*For more information on Furry Friends Farm or Animals Asia, visit

www.furryfriendsfarm2006.blogspot.com or www.animalsasia.org*