Medical doctor John Wedderman quietly linked 759 Asian animal advocates into the beginnings of an international movement
HONG KONG––Asian Animal Protection Network founder John Wedderburn, 83, among the most influential yet least well-known builders of the global animal rights and humane movements, died on November 25, 2024 at his retirement home in West Java, Indonesia.
“My Uncle John died last week,” wrote his nephew Pete Wedderburn for Wicklow People, in Wicklow, Ireland, where he has practiced veterinary medicine since opening his own practice in 1991.
“My favorite uncle”
“He had been my favorite uncle. He had been suffering from a complex neurodegenerative disease for some years. He was an inspiring man. His deepest passion was his desire to improve the lot of animals,” continued Pete Wedderburn, 62, better known as the veterinary columnist and commentator Pete the Vet.
“John had always related closely to animals,” Pete the Vet added. “He had been bullied as a child, and had learned to view animals as more reliable, supportive and dependable than most humans. He had a skeptical view of human motivations. He felt animals were, at least, more direct and honest.
Became committed vegan
“He became a committed vegan in his early fifties,” Pete the Vet remembered, “after his 20-year-old vegan son explained to him about how animals suffered during industrial-scale farming of livestock.
“His son told him about how animals were kept in overcrowded, poorly housed conditions in the Far East, suffering at the end due to badly managed slaughter. His answer to this was to join his son in stopping eating meat and dairy products: at least he felt that he was not contributing to their suffering.
“Uncle John lived in Indonesia with his wife Sati in his final years. He was buried according to local Islamic customs within 12 hours of his death,” Pete the Vet concluded.
Worked as medical escort in China
John Wedderburn, a Scotland-born medical general practitioner, relocated to Hong Kong in 1973, where he spent the next 50 years. For more than 30 years John Wedderburn traveled extensively in mainland China as an on-call medical escort for foreigners who became injured or ill and required evacuation, primarily to Hong Kong but sometimes to Singapore.
Pete Wedderburn had already become a veterinarian at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1985, two years before John Wedderburn became involved in animal advocacy in 1987.
“John Wedderburn revealed to me that he had written his own autobiography and shared a copy for me to read,” recalled Shubhobroto Ghosh, now wildlife campaign manager for World Animal Protection in India, a friend and colleague of Wedderburn for 21 years.
“Many surprises”
“The book revealed many surprises,” Ghosh said, “including that John Wedderburn and his brother Zander Wedderburn (1935-2017), a pioneering industrial psychologist, “had a very difficult childhood.”
Their father, Alexander Archibald Innes Wedderburn, was a lawyer and auditor to the Court of Session, the highest civil court in Scotland. Their mother was Ellen Innes Jeans.
John and Zander attended Edinburgh Academy, founded in 1824, investigated in 2023 by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry “over numerous allegations by ex-pupils of historical abuse by several staff. The Academy later issued an acknowledgement and apology,” mentions Wikipedia.
But that was much too late to help John and Zander.
“I should have become a politician”
“The first time I did something naughty, something very minor,” John Wedderburn recalled to ANIMALS 24-7, “I was caned because I hadn’t owned up. So the second time I owned up and was caned. The third time I lied and was caught out and caned. I was never caught again because I learned how to lie effectively. I should have become a politician!
“My teachers were certainly a bunch of sadists,” John Wedderburn said. “I guess the sadists no longer become teachers. Perhaps they all work in zoos, and probably prisons.
“About 12 of our teachers seemed to get their kicks from making boys miserable, either by physically assaulting them or mentally abusing them or, usually, a combination of both. I think there were so many because they themselves got fucked up by being in the army during World War II.
Five pull-ups on the goalpost crossbar
“Being good at sports seemed to be the key to getting in with these fucked up bastards. I had an eyesight problem whereby I couldn’t see a moving ball; also I suffered from an inability to understand why it mattered which side scored the highest.
“So I learned how to evade the system. I remember one incident on the rugby field when the teacher in charge stopped the game and shouted at me for not making enough effort. He thought he would get a laugh out of me by telling me, in front of the 29 other players, that I could go home if I could do five pull-ups on the goalpost crossbar.
“When I calmly and quickly completed the task, his face contorted in fury, but he had
to let me go! He didn’t know that I had taken up rock and ice climbing! My bleakest and blackest period was the two years before I discovered the mountains––ages 12 to 14.
Machine gun fantasy
“When I was 13,” John Wedderburn added, “I joined the school cadet corps and was taught, among other things, how to use a Bren gun,” a type of light machine gun.
“Before sexual fantasies took over at age 14, I used to spend a lot of time fantasizing about setting up a Bren gun in the school playground and mowing down the teachers as they walked to class. If we had U.S. gun laws, I might have been able to act it out.”
John Wedderburn debuted in animal advocacy by volunteering and serving as a board member for the Hong Kong SPCA and the Hong Kong environmental organization EarthCare.
This led to several years as volunteer Far East representative for the British-based Born Free Foundation, including the then-subsidiary organization ZooCheck.
Zoo inspections
In this capacity, roving as far as Europe, John Wedderburn visited at least a dozen zoos in September 1995 and July 1996, sharing his notes with ANIMALS 24-7.
In Vienna, Austria, Wedderburn visited the Schonbrunn Palace Zoo, founded in 1752 and reputedly the world’s oldest zoo in continuous operation.
“The design and layout are aesthetically pleasing from a human point of view,” John Wedderburn wrote, “but for the animals,” who “were all in good physical condition,” it must be “like living in shop windows.“
In China, John Wedderburn described the Beijing Zoo as “a beautiful park full of mature trees and miserable animals, but not as bad as most Chinese zoos.”
“Uniformly bleak”
John Wedderburn noted rapid expansion during several trips to the Guangzou Zoo, including one visit with ANIMALS 24-7, but the many cages “are uniformly bleak with concrete walls and floors and iron bars,” he reported. “Most of the animals who were not sleeping showed distressing signs of zoochosis,” or stereotyped behavior.
Offering advisory help, John Wedderburn was told by senior veterinarian Chen Hong Han that they were “only interested in receiving help with new reproductive techniques.”
John Wedderburn found similar conditions at the Jiaozuo Zoo and Zhengzhou Zoo in Henan province, and in Shanghai at Yeung Po Park, the Shanghai Zoo, and the then newly opened Shanghai Safari Park, which at 462 acres is almost twice the size of the Bronx Zoo.
Preferred the zoo that was turned into tennis courts
John Wedderburn preferred a fourth Shanghai facility, the Xi Jiao Sea Life Park, built as an aquarium but––after the fish died––converted into tennis courts and a botanical garden.
On repeated visits to the Thu Le Park Zoo in Hanoi, Vietnam, John Wedderburn was horrified by bobbing and swaying elephants, the clouded leopard’s cage, which he termed “the most featureless, dank jail cell you could imagine,” and the rapid decline of a maned wolf, obtained from the Berlin Tier Park in Germany, who couldn’t take the Vietnamese heat and humidity.
“I think sending this wolf to Hanoi was an absolute disgrace,” John Wedderburn opined. “Berlin should be severely censured by the World Zoo Federation,” which as usual in cases known to ANIMALS 24-7, did nothing.
(Merritt Clifton photo)
“A house of zoochotic horrors”
At the Taipei Zoo, in Taiwan, John Wedderburn found “cages reasonably large compared with other Asian zoos,” except in the Nocturnal Animal House, which he termed “a house of zoochotic horrors,” where foxes, raccoons, and many exotic cats “frantically pace in cages far too small for them.”
Also in Taiwan, John Wedderburn observed of the Gaoxiong Zoo: “As high security prisons go, not too bad. One of the tigers jumped up at me when I got too close and seemed to enjoy the game. An elephant took obvious delight in throwing leaves and small stones at me.
“The pythons were presumably happy to have live chickens sharing their cage. The chickens seemed happy, foraging for food, apparently unaware of their cell mates. The keepers seemed to have a good attitude. One lady hosed and brushed the sea lions with obvious pleasure all around.”
Assessments are unfortunately still accurate
Recent reports from others tend to affirm John Wedderburn’s assessments, even nearly 30 years later.
The best zoo in Asia, according to John Wedderburn, was the Singapore Zoo, which continues to hold that reputation, with the Taipei Zoo second.
“Many of the animals do not have nearly enough space, and lack their environmental needs,” Wedderburn wrote, “but the zoo is obviously making huge efforts at enrichment, hammering home all the right messages.”
“The real answer is basic education”
On behalf of ZooCheck, and of course the zoo animals, John Wedderburn said, “We try to forge relationships with the Chinese authorities,” often in partnership with the Beijing office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare
“We believe the real answer is basic education. We are encouraging local Chinese groups to set up humane education centers,” John Wedderburn explained in May 1996.
As well as inspecting zoos, John Wedderburn on behalf of ZooCheck helped to lead a global campaign against feeding live prey species, especially poultry, to carnivores as part of the show at some Chinese zoos.
Found U.S. allies
This included joining with Dena Jones of the Animal Protection Institute and San Jose Mercury News staff writer Linda Goldston to persuade the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to block a wildlife export permit until the Beijing Badaling Wildlife Park stopped live feeding.
Jones, Goldston, and John Wedderburn also helped to delay several loans of pandas from China to U.S. zoos, for fancy prices supposed to help fund conservation in China but often diverted into other projects.
Wrote Goldston, “Critics charge that pandas are such a bonanza for U.S. zoos, prompting huge leaps in attendance, that officials of the 184-member AZA remain silent about the fate of other animals in Chinese zoos to avoid hurting their chances of securing panda loans.”
World Society for the Protection of Animals
John Wedderburn also volunteered for several years in the 1990s as an advisory director for the World Society for the Protection of Animals [WSPA].
“WSPA’s membership structure was ill-conceived and never functioned well,” John Wedderburn told ANIMALS 24-7 after the World Society for the Protection of Animals dropped the membership structure in 2012 and later changed names to become simply World Animal Protection.
(See What next for World Animal Protection?, by Janice Cox.)
“The organization was always executive-led and the views of humble members were ignored,” John Wedderburn charged. “I quickly discovered that [then director general] Andrew Dickson had no interest in my opinions and no interest in helping the member societies.
“In 1998 I suggested that the food at their biennial conference should be vegetarian and was told it would be impolite to their guests to not serve meat. One month later I received a letter telling me that my term as advisory director had come to an end.”
Founded AAPN in December 1999
“I started the Asian Animal Protection Network forum in December 1999 and moved it to the Yahoo platform in November 2000,” John Wedderburn recalled.
The first listserv for animal advocates focused on Asian issues, the AAPN Forum rapidly grew to 759 members in more than 40 nations, facilitating discussions and introductions that helped to create a constellation of other Asian organizations and projects, especially in China.
Most influential may have been the Asia for Animals conference series, begun by the International Fund for Animal Welfare as a one-time event in Manila, Philippines, earlier in 2000, but now a 350-member coalition holding conferences annually.
Coordinated disaster relief
The AAPN Forum was also the primary communication medium coordinating animal rescue efforts after the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 26, 2004.
The tsunami killed more than 230,000 people in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
Locally dispatched animal rescue teams linked by AAPN were on the scene helping both humans and animals days before even governmental relief efforts go started, and weeks before any international animal charities arrived.
Later the AAPN Forum served a similar role after other regional disasters, including the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Responded to disease outbreaks
The AAPN Forum also was a leading information resource in response to zoonotic disease outbreaks, including of rabies in multiple nations, the Nipah virus, and especially the Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome [SARS] outbreak that hit Guangdong, just north of Hong Kong in January 2004.
The Chinese government killed an estimated 10,000 masked palm civets, tanukis, (also called raccoon dogs), and hog badgers in the first 10 days of January 2004 to try to stop the SARS pandemic, after SARS had already caused 142 human deaths in 2002 and 774 in 2003.
“We non-Chinese do not have the moral ground to shout”
“You can take some comfort in the knowledge that the fate the civets are now receiving is actually better than the fate that was in store for them,” John Wedderburn testified.
“Without this cull they would have been kept confined in miserable cages and then transported in wretched conditions to be slaughtered, almost certainly in a worse manner,” John Wedderburn posted.
“We non-Chinese do not have the moral ground to shout at the Chinese for eating civets,” John Wedderburn continued, “until our countries go vegan and we get rid of our slaughterhouses, where the methods of death are often no better.”
Elephant polo
Among the more memorable disputes on the AAPN forum blew up in 2006 between activists and organizations seeking to reform elephant polo, played only at four venues in India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, and other activists and organizations seeking to abolish it.
The chief issue was the use of the ankus, also known as a bullhook.
John Wedderburn, as AAPN moderator, usually stood aside from heated arguments, except to curtail flame-throwing, but took sides that time:
“I fully understand the good intentions of those who have been working to introduce ankus-free polo matches,” he posted on October 12, 2006. “But the exploitation of these magnificent beasts is unacceptable whether or not an ankus is used on the field. The use of these wonderful animals for human entertainment is absolutely wrong in principle.”
Elephant polo did finally end a dozen years later, after the last gasp of AAPN.
(See Elephant polo ends in Jaipur, but elephant use & abuse in tourism continue, Elephant polo follows woolly mammoths toward extinction, and Will videotaped beatings kill the last elephant polo tournament?)
Gave up on zoo reform in favor of abolition
John Wedderburn had already abandoned efforts to reform zoo management from within in August 2006.
“I have attended three of the Southeast Asian Zoo Association’s annual conferences, in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong,” he explained. “The organizing committee is hospitable and allows dissenting voices like mine to attend and to speak. But I have given up attending, as it is a club for those in the zoo business. It should be a forum for raising standards of animal welfare and conservation but it makes little effort to bring ethical offenders into line.”
Concerning the common but mostly fallacious claim that zoos contribute to species conservation in the wild, John Wedderburn said, “I would prefer extinction of my species to a future of captivity, certainly of captivity in the conditions currently offered in Chinese zoos.”
“We do not need menageries”
ANIMALS 24-7 had much the same experience with both the Southeast Asian Zoo Association and the World Zoo Association in 2008 after teaming with Tony Peel, owner of the Perth Zoo in Australia, to document extensive animal drugging at photo booths at zoos in Bali, Indonesia.
Regardless of the quality and sources of evidence, neither zoo association took any action against member zoos for flagrant violations of their own codes of ethics.
“Whereas one has the greatest sympathy for poorly fed and badly housed animals in zoos,” John Wedderburn added in December 2007, “we should not be putting our efforts into raising money for wild animal prisons. We should be trying to close at least the worst zoos. We need preservation of natural habitat and animal rescue centers and sanctuaries; we do not need menageries, however beautiful the natural setting.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Skeptical of opening shelters without s/n clinics
John Wedderburn was also openly skeptical of Chinese cities, including Beijing, which made public productions of opening dog pounds before establishing affordable access to spay/neuter service for pet keepers and feral cat feeders.
“Either the dogs will be killed after a short time,” John Wedderburn predicted on November 16, 2006, “or they will be kept in cages long term, if there is sufficient funding, which is very doubtful.”
John Wedderburn strongly favored the neuter/return approach to street dog management that had already become national law in India, Costa Rica, and Turkey.
(China Animal Protection Power photo)
“Totally against the use of violence”
Another heated controversy on AAPN developed in March 2007 after some participants urged an expansion of Animal Liberation Front-type “direct action,” as practiced in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, into Asia.
“Personally I am totally against the use of violence to further the aims of animal rights, both from a theoretical and a practical point of view. I am convinced that ALF-type actions do far more harm than good to our cause,” John Wedderburn posted on March 15, 2007.
“But the rhetoric is beguiling to some and should be subject to reasoned debate. As moderator,” John Wedderburn said, “I think it is useful to give the light of day to extreme views so that they can be argued against openly. Sweeping such ideas under the carpet can only encourage them to ferment.”
To date, “ALF-type actions” have rarely occurred in Asia.
But encouraged Chinese non-violent “open rescues”
However, AAPN, via Chinese members, extensively documented non-violent civil disobedience actions in southern China that beginning in 2006 stopped trucks illegally hauling stolen pets and street animals to slaughter for human consumption, rescuing thousands of animals for adoption.
In most cases the local police simply stepped aside, while the Chinese government-controlled media provided sympathetic coverage.
These incidents rarely received notice in non-Chinese media, other than from ANIMALS 24-7.
(See Why Guangzhou dog rescue reveals more about China than Yulin dog-eating festival and China: Stopping dog trucks is the easy part. Saving dogs is harder.)
FIAPO listserv split the audience
The beginning of the end for the AAPN Forum, in hindsight, came on October 11, 2008, nineteen months after the formal debut of the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations [FIAPO] at the 2007 Asia for Animals conference in Chennai, India.
“Over the last couple of years,” John Wedderburn told AAPN members, “AAPN has received more and more items of purely local Indian interest.
“We have been happy to help with the development of on-line Indian discourse,” John Wedderburn opined, “but the time has come to encourage the formation of a national Indian internet group. AAPN may therefore in future reject posts that are not of any interest to readers outside India. Items about major Indian events and trends will of course still be welcomed, because these are of general Asian interest.”
With that encouragement, FIAPO launched a listserv that almost immediately pulled away more than half of the AAPN content and participants.
Court cases over TNR in Hong Kong
John Wedderburn himself was meanwhile preoccupied by a series of Hong Kong court cases. John Wedderburn himself was criminally charged by the Hong Kong government for his efforts to help six stray dogs who lived near Hung Shing Ye beach on Lamma Island.
John Wedderburn in 2009 was informed by the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department that its officers had trapped the six dogs, and that if he did not claim the dogs as his personal pets, the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department would kill them.
Charged with 11 offenses for allegedly not keeping the dogs under control, after sterilizing and vaccinating them and returning them to Hung Shing Ye beach, John Wedderburn countered that the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department was “misusing the rabies ordinance.”
Tulip Chan
John Wedderburn pleaded not guilty to all charges and apparently escaped severe penalties.
The Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department then turned to prosecuting another neuter/return rescuer named Tulip Chan.
Chan was in July 2010 found guilty and fined the equivalent of $321 in U.S. dollars. The judge, however, rejected most of the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department arguments against neuter/return.
In December 2010 the Hong Kong government authorized an experimental neuter/return program, to be conducted in 2011 by the Hong Kong SPCA. The experimental program was repeatedly delayed, however, leading Wedderburn and others to begin on their own in March 2012.
“Killing only works very short-term”
Explained John Wedderburn to the Hong Kong Legislative Council on August 12, 2013, “For more than 15 years I have––in various capacities––been trying to persuade Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department of the merits of desexing in general and TNR in particular.
“Killing only works very short term,” John Wedderburn said, “whereas desexing is an effective long term solution.
“If only the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department would convert their killing houses into desexing clinics, Hong Kong’s dog and cat problems could be solved permanently and within a very few years and much money saved.
“Dogs with full stomachs do not enter traps”
“Today, however, we are not asking for the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department to do this. It is obvious that they do not have the mental capacity to grasp the logic. Instead, all we are asking for is for them to get out of the way––stop obstructing the organizations that are willing to do the work for them. These trials are a stupid waste of time.”
The independently conducted neuter/return program stumbled, John Wedderburn acknowledged, “because, so far, it has not been possible to control the villagers who wish to continue shoveling large quantities of dog food to the dogs. Dogs with full stomachs do not enter traps.
“Interestingly,” John Wedderburn said, “it is not villagers in favor of the department’s catch and kill policy who have been the problem, but those who can’t bear to think of dogs being trapped and neutered.
“If the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department ordered villagers to stop putting down food, this minimum of official support would ensure success.”
Turned AAPN over to successors
John Wedderburn by this time was almost near the end of his 50 years in Hong Kong. His last public act in Hong Kong before relocating with his wife to her home in Indonesia was to appeal to the Hong Kong legislature to pass a stronger, more enforceable law against cruelty to animals.
On February 14, 2021 John Wedderburn had informed AAPN Forum members that, “Lisa Warden kindly agreed to take over the role of moderator, starting March 1, 2012.
“John Edmundson,” a fellow Hong Kong resident and vegan noted as a humane movement historian, “will take over the rest of AAPN, including the web site, and bring it into the 21st century.”
(Beth Clifton collage based on Four Paws photo)
Last stand was for sun bear sanctuary
John Wedderburn in Indonesia appears to have undertaken only one major campaign, a successful effort in 2013 to save the sun bear rescue facility at the Balikpapan Environmental Tourism & Education Centre at Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Indonesia.
“Sun bears, the smallest of the bear family, are known for their seemingly ceaseless foraging in the wild,” John Wedderburn wrote. “Yet a decade after sun bears were made the official mascots of Balikpapan, the most affluent city in East Kalimantan, n part in appreciation of their industriousness, chief city councilor Andi Burhanuddin Solong reportedly wants to disenfranchise them because he views them as ‘lazy.’
“More ominously for the six rescued sun bears kept there, Solong wants to turn their $2 million habitat into a campground.”
“Original stalwarts are now scattered”
The AAPN Forum did not thrive post-John Wedderburn. After an attempted transition from the listserv format to Facebook and a web site, in died altogether.
It officially ceased existence on April 17, 2019.
“The original stalwarts of the group are now scattered to the far corners of the world,” Wedderburn wrote in his last email to the membership. “I myself have retreated to a corner of West Java to eke out what time I have left. If you happen to find yourself anywhere near here, please get in touch.
“Unfortunately I don’t think I will be able to get to any more Asia for Animals conferences.”
Memorialized Shubhobroto Ghosh, “John Wedderburn was a professional and personal mentor to me for two decades.
“John Wedderburn was an agnostic like me. We shared many a thought on religion during the years we knew each other. He once told me it is arrogant to come to a conclusion on the God debate, without being absolutely certain, a position also outlined by the astronomer, Carl Sagan.
“I heard of his death from social media and felt very upset. It was like losing a family member,” Ghosh continued. “Many memories have crossed my mind since I heard of his passing.
“If there is a God, I think he will make sure that John Wedderburn will rest among the angels of the animals and humans he helped during his lifetime.”
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RIP Mr. John Wedderburn. What an interesting and full life he led. Sharing with gratitude.
Such sincere compassion is truly rare. Rest gently among your angel friends.
Always sad to lose such important figures in animal advocacy. Sad for us, tragic for the animals.
Thank you for this lovely account of my remarkable uncle’s life.
Pete Wedderburn
Fantastic article. You really did him justice. Thank you.
Extremely comprehensive and well compiled. Much appreciated. Thank you very much for this recollection, it made me visit some episodes I have long forgotten. Some of the most active periods of the Asian Animal Protection Network are behind us, which makes me feel we are all getting near our time.
Thanks for sharing the article of Dr. John Wedderburn. He was my mentor for 14 years in Hong Kong.
Thank you everyone. My husband was a great man and a very special person. He really cared about this planet and animal rights. I’ve been with him for 16 years and learned alot from him.
Many thanks for this tribute to Dr John Wedderburn.
It is very well compiled and reminded me of many episodes of Asian Animal Protection Network I had forgotten.
The Animal Liberation Front episode was an important discussion on AAPN as you have written. It was precipitated by the film on Animal Liberation Front named ‘Beyond The Mask’ that I reviewed for the Telegraph newspaper and promoted widely in India.
John Wedderburn also visited hundreds of zoos around the world to check them for animal welfare conditions when it was not fashionable to do so.
Thank you for also including the photograph of me with him.
Truly, his death marks the end of an era and the passing of an age of effective communication for animal protection.
AAPN makes me think time flies!