Was watching Animal Planet just now

on the illegal wildlife trade in Thailand. Sad and angering. For both the people and the animals.

It shows the great numbers of wild animals captured from their natural habitats, the babies snatched from their moms after the poachers shoot the moms dead, ripping the babies from their tight clutches to the safe comfort they will never feel ever again...thrown into tiny cages...and sent straight to the many markets peppering Thailand to fetch some quick bucks from people who have taken to this illegal trade as a means to put food on the table. However, with the exorbitant prices labelled on these animals, I guess some of these poachers are putting a whole lot of food and more on their tables.

The episode follows the rescue of 2 sun bears who have been bought and kept as pets in a fish farm, in small rusty cages with no room for such magnificent animals to run or swim or climb - to BE simply bears and do the things they are born to do.

Day in, day out, the 2 bears never got to smell the fresh air outdoors, never knew how grass feels like under their feet, never seen pools of water other than their rusty water bucket, and so very sadly, NEVER FELT THE SUN ON THEIR FACES.

For 5 long years.....1 of the bear has lived a dead life. He must have wished many times that he has died.

The rescue crew was going around some areas talking and convincing the people to surrender their illegal pets so that they can be brought to the animal sanctuary for a better life before all sense of hope in their souls is crushed.

The lady owner of these 2 bears eventually agreed to let the rescuers take her 2 bears, and at the point of rescue, few other people came to surrender their illegal wildlife as well.

The pivotol moment of these 2 bears' life - after 5 hard years under men who have betrayed the wildness they were born for - one of the bear was released from his quarantine cell to the sanctuary that is to be his new home.

You can see the utter apprehension on his face and his slow, careful movements. That must be the first time he has seen so much SPACE, with no bars blocking his view. After 5 long years on a concrete flooring, he carefully takes baby steps on the concrete perimeters of the sanctuary....then a lick at some ants crawling up a wall.....

and then very slowly, in a moment that made one rescue team member cry, and which made my eyes water as well --- very slowly, his face almost void of expression, still lost in the zone where dreams come true....this wondrous creature, robbed off his life in the wilderness where he belongs --- he very slowly turns his head up to the sky....and for the very first time after 5 years in captivity, he basks in the glory of the sun.

His eyes and expression still lingers on my mind and I can still see and feel his sigh of inexpressible relief ... not exactly joy he was feeling as yet for I think he has forgotten how to be joyful anymore and it will take time to remember it......but this deep, deep resonance of relief that knows no words but is understood by all who were watching him.

This heartwrenching moment of what exactly men has done to creations out there whom we have no right of authority over, for they are of a life of their own, with their very own dignified and meaningful path to take in nature. In nature is where they are born to live, to feed, to rest, to fight, to mate, to die.

That scene -- a bear feeling the sun on his face after 5 long years -- it makes me shameful of mankind.

I am very sorry for the many animals out there at this very minute who are groaning out for help, many whom will never get to feel the sun on their faces ever again, many whom I will never know of and never get to touch and save.

It makes me angry at the many frivolous distractions of our earthly life out there - the frivolity of manicures and pedicures, of what color dress is nicer over another, of branded stuff so low in quality and utterly devoid of a shred of meaning -- more and more, better, faster, newer THINGS that are lifeless and yet we allow them to eat into the precious minutes of our ONE DAY where so much can be done, so much needs to be done.

Make full use of each day. Waste not an opportunity where you can make a difference. Every day is FILLED with moments where you can step forward and make a difference. It is every moments like these that will make up the LIFE you look back on when you have lived richly and fully and are ready to move on.

Yes, I do feel angry and disappointed at mankind at times. And yet, in the ironical twist of truths, it shows yet again that beneath our screaming platform of animals in need, lies a jungle of human beings who have not open their eyes and hearts to accept the rights to life of all living beings, for their own lives are in desperate need.

Save the people and they will save the animals? The question - where do we start?

With the very person next to you. Cos every one of us has something deep within, that needs to be saved.