Three people from Hong Kong’s finance industry have opted to demonstrate that there’s more to life than making money.

Jonathan Hancock and Lee Wallace, both of HSBC, and David Bouckley of BNP Paribas Securities Asia have teamed up to organize a fundraiser for efforts by the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) to rescue Asian Moon Bears.

A Moon Bear Christmas Benefit is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. on November 15 at Club JJ’s inside the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong in the Wan Chai district. The organizers hope to earn enough to rescue at least one Moon Bear.

“Our goal is a minimum of HK$75,000, the cost to ‘adopt’ a bear, saving the animal from a life of torture on a bile farm,” said Hancock.

Among other projects, the AAF, a Hong Kong-based charity, has rescued 500 Moon Bears from brutal bile farms in China and more at a new sanctuary in Vietnam. The “farmed” bile goes into traditional medicine, regardless of cheaper, equally valid herbal and synthetic alternatives.

“Recently, Lee and I felt incredibly impressed when visiting the AAF’s Moon Bear Rescue Centre in Chengdu, Sichuan Province,” Hancock said. “The rescued bears who suffered terribly and long on the farms now live in freedom – freedom from physical pain, mental torture and incarceration in those hellish cages. Watching the amazing animals savor each moment of their new lives inspired us. We couldn’t walk away and do nothing.”

AAF founder Jill Robinson, who’ll speak at the event, is delighted that the three men seized the initiative. “It’s incredibly kind and generous of them,” she said. “Like most Hong Kong people, these bankers are perpetually busy, but they’ve found time to do something about an issue that concerns them. I hope the ripples they start will inspire others to do the same.”

In fact, humans always should extend holiday kindness to animals. Peace on Earth and goodwill to living creatures.

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