Author: Catherine (Catherine Besch)

Substitute “China” for “Vietnam” in this meme and you’ll understand what we face as a rescue working for ALL species. I have often attributed my hatred of social media and contact with the public to my advancing age. It feels that with each passing year in this work I get closer and closer to being...

For the past few months, I have been in the US taking over my parents’ household.  After 14 years abroad, 8 in Vietnam, this has been a very tough trip and I look forward to coming home to Vietnam as soon as the borders reopen. I left Vietnam at the beginning of March to come...

As international animal welfare and animal rights groups from the West frequently look to Asia as a conglomeration of  lands of savage animal cruelty due to targeted marketing against the dog meat trade, some very sick and unproductive side effects have come out of this process. This process of singling out certain Asian countries, most...

We cannot continue to ignore the threat to human health from diseases originating in animal exploitation. If you are reading this from your home where you are forced to hang out with your family 24/7 or alone and have only Zoom parties as your social contact, then you should have a little understanding about why...

We are all looking at the inevitable effects of Covid-19 for ourselves, our families, our jobs, and our businesses no matter where we are in the world right now. As we watch the stock markets plummet, the shops closing, schools shutting down for months in many countries, we are also looking at the effects of...

Since we did not hit our funding target in order to get the clinic building, we are having to regroup after this incredible disappointment to push forward as quickly as possible after years of struggling to get the care the animals of central Vietnam need.  The building we want has still not been rented luckily,...

In February, 2012, I moved to Nha Trang, Vietnam and arrived with stars in my eyes.  After a frozen year in Mongolia and a cold journey through South America, I came here with my dog and my cat from the US to start a new life. Vietnam seemed like paradise. I planned on just staying...

We are moving forward today and are never looking back again. This is why the clinic is opening this month, come hell or high water:   We are tired of saying no.  We are tired of feeling helpless. We are tired of being sent case after case after case that we know very well from...

Opening a new vet clinic nearly 3 years after the failure of our last one is no small feat. For nearly 3 years, I worked my fingers to the bone trying to keep the clinic running on almost no money, with volunteers and even our head vet coming and going with no measure of consistency,...

What makes VAAR different from other animal advocacy organizations in Vietnam and globally? For one, we are a non-speciesist organization, meaning we know that ALL species suffer the same and ALL species deserve the same chance at living a long, healthy life.  We know that in terms of numbers of animals suffering, fish actually are...