Chaimu's story with her loving Sheldrick family spans 17 years. After being rescued as an orphan, she was raised and eventually rewilded herself. In September 2024, she gave birth to her first calf, Chapa, outside the home where she was raised. Sadly, she returned after more than a month and Chapa was no longer with her. Sheldrick is not sure what happened to her little boy. Chaimu came back around the Ithumba stockades a few months ago, visibly with calf. On October 2nd, she came back with a little baby girl in tow, Comet. Another beautiful light of hope. Comet is the 95th known grandcalf born to an orphan rescued, raised, and rewilded through Sheldrick's Orphans' Project. It is always such a heartwarming event when they bring their babies back to meet their Sheldrick family. It fills my soul with joy. Let's welcome Comet with love, hope, and a bright future for her and her incredible mother. Once orphaned, frightened, alone and almost blind. Now a fully healed, healthy miracle and contributor to our wonderful Earth. Here is the video of our newest star of the show. Enjoy the love today. ❤️

For 34 years, Stana lived in captivity, but last week, thanks to Harmony Fund, this beautiful elderly bear finally got to experience something she had been denied for almost her entire life. Her freedom to be a bear. Stana's story began in the forests of Serbia, where she and her sister Mara lived with their mother as cubs. Their mom was teaching them how to be a bear. How to fish, where to find berries and where to shelter from the rain. Then a hunter killed their mother and had her taxidermied as a trophy. And in a heartbreaking twist, Stana and Mara ended up spending their lives dependent upon the same man who had killed their mother. Four years ago, authorities finally found the sisters, removed them from the property, and took them to Palic Zoo, but sadly, Mara passed away last year and Stana had now lost both her mom and her sister. But her story wasn't over yet. Last week, Harmony Fund helped move Stana to ARKA Sanctuary in Banostor, where at long last she could experience a different kind of life. A life of being a bear. Her first day was spent exploring, eating fresh fruits and vegetables and discovering her new pool. And she apparently decided clean water was highly overrated because within a couple of hours she had climbed in and out so many times that she'd turned it muddy. Fun! 😂 But what she did that evening absolutely got my heart. As the day came to an end, Stana began digging into the earth. She made a little depression just big enough for her body. Then she gathered dry grass and arranged everything the way she wanted it to make herself a natural bed. Stana hadn't lived in the forest since she was a cub, but after 34 years she remembered how her mama taught her to be a bear. It was the first time in all those years she got to sleep outside under the stars and be a beary happy bear again. We can't give Stana those lost years back. She cannot be released into the wild, both because it isn't permitted by law and because after so many years in captivity she lacks the survival skills she would need. But she can now have grass beneath her paws, fresh food, and a pool to make as muddy as her heart pleases.

It is time to come together again and choose the organization that will receive Empowering Animals’ October donation. I’m so happy to share that we have $35 to donate this month! That is almost doubled since we began in June. How wonderful is that? We are growing for the animals! ❤️ This month, we have three hopeful opportunities to protect endangered Palm Cockatoos, help save pangolins from extinction, and care for rescued elephants in Thailand. ❤️ People For Wildlife: Palm Cockatoo Project People For Wildlife is working to protect endangered Palm Cockatoos in Australia. Because these remarkable birds raise only one chick about every two years and old nesting trees are disappearing, the project creates and protects nesting hollows to give future generations a better chance to thrive. ❤️ Pangolin Crisis Fund The Pangolin Crisis Fund helps protect all eight pangolin species from poaching and illegal trafficking. Donations support projects around the world that rescue and rehabilitate pangolins, protect their habitats, combat wildlife trafficking, and work with local communities. ❤️ Pangea Elephant Sanctuary: Bring Kariba Home Kariba, who is currently healing and waiting for approval to travel. Pangea needs to raise approximately $115,000 for Kariba’s move from Belgium to her new sanctuary home in Portugal once she is fully healed, along with her transitional care. We also have a special way to support GRACE gorillas through the beautiful gorilla shirts available at Cause & Chaos Graphic Tees, created with artwork donated by @Kate Bullock especially for Empowering Animals. I received my gorilla shirt on Sunday, and it is gorgeous! I’m so happy to be able to support GRACE

Sometimes one moment between a human and an animal can reach farther than anyone could ever imagine. I want to introduce you to Jill Robinson. The reason Rick Wakeman could play music for the moon bears now free from their years of cruelty and abuse. In 1993, Jill Robinson visited a bear bile farm in southern China. While she was there, a moon bear she named Hong, reached her paw through the bars of her cage and Jill reached back and held it. Jill left that farm knowing she received her calling. That moment changed the direction of Jill's life. Soon after, Jill and others helped rescue their first group of bears from another bile farm. In 1998, she founded Animals Asia, beginning what would become a decades-long mission to end bear bile farming and give rescued bears a life of sanctuary. More than 700 bears have since been rescued, all because one beautiful soul reaching for another began bringing more souls together. Jill became close friends with Jane Goodall who became a mentor and supporter of Animals Asia and the bears they were fighting to save. Before Jane passed away in 2025, she became guardian to a rescued moon bear named Robinson, who had spent approximately 15 years on a bile farm in Vietnam before finally reaching sanctuary. Robinson was named in honor of Jill. ❤️ And in March 2026, Jill received one of the first-ever Jane Goodall Hope Awards, recognizing more than three decades of her work for animals. I believe Hong knew what she was doing when she reached for the soul she knew would fight for her. We may never know what happened to her. But more than 700 rescued bears later, we know what happened because of her. One soul really can change the world with one tiny gesture of love. Thank you, Hong. And thank you, Jill Robinson, for reaching back.

On September 24, legendary musician Rick Wakeman sat down at a grand piano at Animals Asia's Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre in Tam Dao National Park with an audience of more than 150 rescued bears. These beautiful bears once lived very different lives. They were rescued from the bear bile industry and now live in a beautiful 27 acre sanctuary, where they can climb, forage, explore and simply be bears again. The event was part of Animals Asia's Free the Final Bears campaign, bringing attention to the bears who remain in captivity in Vietnam's remaining bile farms. This movement was started in 1998 by Jill Robinson and today, bear bile extraction is now illegal in Vietnam, and the country has made enormous progress. In 2005, more than 4,200 bears were recorded in captivity. Today, Animals Asia estimates that around 150 remain and they need to come home to the sanctuaries that are ready to receive them. Rick Wakeman has supported Animals Asia for years and even serves as guardian to a rescued moon bear named Moon. For this special concert, he brought his music into the bears' world to help bring the world's attention back to them. Sometimes awareness can begin with something as simple and wonderfully unusual as a man, a piano and a forest full of bears. Let's play it loud for the animals. 🎹🐻❤️