MEDIA RELEASE - THE CHINA BEAR RESCUE HAS BEGUN!

[Guest guest]

The largest bear rescue of its kind anywhere in the world has begun with

details released at an international media conference in Hong Kong

today.

 

In recent years bear farming has flourished across Korea, China and

Vietnam. Each day, thousands of bears are cruelly 'milked' for their

bile through crude metal catheters implanted in their gall bladders.

They suffer intolerably from confinement in tiny cages, which causes

scarring two to three feet long across the length of their bodies.

 

Ironically, all bear bile products can easily be replaced by herbs or

synthetic alternatives which are considered just as effective by eminent

traditional medical practitioners.

 

In July 2000, China took the international lead towards permanently

ending the practice of bear farming and an historic Agreement was signed

between the Animals Asia Foundation and the authorities in Beijing and

Sichuan, which would free 500 suffering endangered Moon bears from the

worst farms in China and would work towards ending bear farming forever.

 

The China Bear Rescue is now underway:

 

As promised, the Chinese authorities are closing down whole farms,

revoking the licenses and confiscating the bears. Animals Asia has

agreed to pay a level of compensation to the farmers in an effort to

ensure that none of these bears are slaughtered for their parts and to

help impoverished farmers move into alternative areas of employment.

The Sichuan government is also passing copies of all confiscated

licenses to Animals Asia and a country wide policy in China ensures that

no new bear farm licenses are being issued.

 

Animals Asia now has 63 bears at their temporary rescue centre

in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Ranging in age from cubs to middle and

old aged, all of the bears are arriving in tiny rusting cages and are in

need of urgent surgery, physiotherapy and tender loving care.

 

As skilled Veterinary staff work to remove the cruel metal implants and

repair the bears damaged bodies during five hour surgical operations,

the inexcusable dire impact of bear farming is being revealed.

 

Metal catheters, some seven inches long, are being removed, whilst

abscesses, hernias and chronic infection are observed. Most of the

bears have wounds from banging their heads against the cage, and broken

teeth from biting the bars in an attempt to stimulate their intelligent

minds. Some of the bears have had their teeth and claws deliberately

cut back or removed by farmers who believe that taking away their

natural defences will make them easier to " milk " .

 

Many of the bears foot pads are cracked and bleeding because of the

total lack of exercise from languishing in a tiny wire cage for up to

twenty two years. Some even have punctured and chronically infected

pads where their claws have grown over, painfully piercing the delicate

tissue.

 

Some of the bears were taken from the wild as cubs and several have

missing and deformed limbs as a result of snares or leg hold traps.

Sadly, none can ever be released back into their natural environment;

having being taken from their mothers at too young an age, they have

never learnt the necessary survival skills.

 

However, Animals Asia is now utilising the temporary rescue centre in

Chengdu, complete with exercise area and swimming pool, and will soon

construct a permanent semi natural sanctuary in Ziyang City where the

bears will be able to live out their lives free from pain and fear.

 

Knowing how farmed bears can recover from such pain and misery at first

hand, Animals Asia is confident that most of the bears will survive, but

know only too well that months of hard work lie ahead to bring their

physical and mental health back to a stage where they will, for the

first time in their lives, be happy and content.

 

The Animals Asia Foundation is grateful to the China Wildlife

Conservation Association in Beijing, the Forest Protection Department in

Chengdu and the authorities in Ziyang, Sichuan Province who have done

everything in their power to help and assist the China Bear Rescue in a

timely and efficient way. We could not have done this without them and

are confident that, whilst we work towards the rescue of 500 bears, we

are paving the way together for the future elimination of bear farming

in China.

 

Founder of the Animals Asia Foundation, Jill Robinson MBE says that:

" The decision to rescue these 500 bears has not been taken lightly. In

reality, they are a small percentage of the current number of 6,992

bears held on 247 farms across China. However, they are also animals

which have spent anything up to twenty two years behind bars and

desperately need help in the form of extensive veterinary care,

physiotherapy and integration. For the first time, large numbers of

farmed bears are, at last, seeing their freedom. This, and our work

with the Chinese government and related authorities, is keeping bear

farming in the public eye, whilst working continuously towards the

goal of ending the practice once and for all. "

 

Further information about the AAF China Bear Rescue, and print quality

photographs of the bears, can be downloaded from the Animals Asia

Foundation website: http://www.animalsasia.org