Thursday 6-22-2017 7:45 p.m. Eastern Time Today Bei Bei is 22 months old. Last month, The National Zoo artificially inseminated his mother Mei Xiang. As such, the reunification of mother & cub will not occur. There are 11,490 people from all over the world who have signed this petition. One of them, Sandy M., has provided the perfect words for this update: "I think it is important however to keep the petition in the public eye to bring awareness to this barbaric practice. SNZ will think twice about doing it to future cubs under their care. This has opened a lot of people's eyes as to the cruelties bestowed on captive animals in the name of conservation. We know the truth of what is occurring here, and for the sake of all captive pandas we must continue the fight. They have no voice, therefore we must speak for them. It took many years to bring about change with Ringling Brothers, Sea World and open people's eyes just to the abusive nature of zoos and captivity in and by itself. This is a multi-million dollar business with much money exchanging hands. They are going to fight tooth and claw to protect it. It is going to be a long struggle, but if no one speaks, it will remain as is. We cannot let that happen." ------------------------ This petition will be kept open, but there will be very sporadic updates (if any) from now on. We have had a good run & so many people have put in so many hours of work to get us to the point that we are at now. I am so grateful to all of you, and I just wish that things would have turned out differently. Sincerely, J.J. Medusa Washington, D.C., U.S.A. reunitepandas@hotmail.com https://twitter.com/jjmedusa