Dateline: Oct 29

On Dateline this week, the story of an Australian woman’s campaign to rescue endangered bears from captivity in Cambodia.

Perth grandmother, Mary Hutton first became aware of the plight of the Sun bears and Asiatic black bears while watching TV twenty years ago. She saw that the bears were being held captive in cages, under horrific conditions. The next day she drew up a petition, collecting thousands of signatures and now, twenty years on, her not-for-profit organisation, Free the Bears, is saving the lives of hundreds of bears which she now houses in her “bear hotels”.

Bear trading and bile extraction is big business in Asia, where their bile is used in traditional medicine and a delicacy known as bear paw soup. The practice is illegal, but both hunting and torturing of the bears continues.

“I never even thought it would reach this stage.” Hutton tells Dateline. “All I could think for the next day is how to get help for these bears, to raise awareness… could only look one day ahead.”

Dateline reporter, David Brill visits Mary’s Wildlife Rescue Centre in Phnom Penh and also films a remarkable scene as a baby bear is rescued and taken to the centre.

Two decades on, Hutton’s work is more important than ever, as the trade continues and the bears face extinction.

Also this week, Twenty-first century Gulag, Dateline goes behind Russia’s prison system and learns of the corruption and extortion behind bars.

Tuesday, 29 October at 9.30pm on SBS ONE.