Fwd: (CN) Bile Bears

[Guest guest]

>Some Caged Bears Freed From

>China's Barbaric Bile Trade

>By Steve Vines in Sichuan, China

>The Observer http://www.observer.co.uk/

>4-29-1

>

>Pooh is free. So are 59 others. But 7,000 remain trapped behind bars in

>barbaric bile trade.

>

>Pooh has no idea she is making history. A powerful shot of drugs has left

>the Asiatic black bear flat on her back as she is carried from a tiny cage

>in one of China's notorious bear farms.

>

>Gail Cochrane, a vet from Irvine near Glasgow, examines the recumbent Pooh

>and declares her 'a lucky bear'. The term 'lucky' is relative. Pooh, who

>weighs nearly 17 stone, has just been released from a cage measuring 2ft by

>4ft by 2ft 6in. Other, bigger bears have spent more than 20 years in smaller

>cages, some with crush bars forcing them to spend their lives spreadeagled

>on the floor. Pooh is among the few bears who will not need surgery to

>repair their injured bodies.

>

>She is the last of 60 bears released by the charity Animals Asia. Within

>five years 500 bears will have been set free. The first 60 are part of a

>pilot scheme in Sichuan province, the biggest habitat of this endangered

>bear species, also known as moon bears because of the crescents on their

>chest fur.

>

>Tai Tan is not such a 'lucky bear'. Cochrane had to remove a metal catheter,

>used by Tai Tan's masters to tap the bile in her gall bladder, allowing it

>to be milked daily. Cochrane breezes through the operation in a newly

>refurbished rescue centre at Long Qiao, an hour's drive from Chengdu,

>capital of Sichuan. Tai Tan has many of the ailments found in these captive

>bears. Her teeth are all broken from gnawing the bars of her cage and the

>soles of her paws are covered with cracks. She has not walked for years.

>

>While Cochrane extracts a bloody mess of metal, fat and tissue from the

>stomach, Beverly Elmer, a veterinary nurse from Suffolk, removes years of

>plaque from the teeth.

>

>Why have these creatures had to suffer so? Because they are farmed for their

>bile, an ingredient of Chinese medicine used to cure fevers, liver

>complaints and sore eyes. And the bile-pumpers have done their job well:

>there is now an over supply and the surplus is being used in shampoos,

>anti-wrinkle creams and even wine.

>

>In 1998 Jill Robinson from Nottingham, founder of Animals Asia, took her

>first tour of bear farms with Cochrane. One of the 'farms' was in a

>five-storey block of flats. Climbing two flights of stairs, they entered a

>flat with 32 bears crammed into four rooms.

>

>Some farms were better, but all kept these large wild animals crushed in

>tiny cages. When bear farming started in the mid-Eighties Chinese farms used

>primitive surgery to insert the catheter, leading to infections. The

>severity of the internal problems often killed the bear. Four of the 64

>rescued in this pilot scheme never made it to freedom; peritonitis and

>septicemia took them first.

>

>The Chinese government eventually replaced the use of catheters with a 'free

>dripping' method which involves drilling a hole in the abdomen and pushing

>up a thin plastic tube to milk the bladder. Cochrane shakes her head at the

>idea that this is supposed to be 'more humane'. It is the source of constant

>inflammation and infection, she says, and exposes the abdomen to the risk of

>leaking, which can lead to death.

>

>The irony of this maltreatment is that it began with the Chinese

>government's attempts to conserve the bears. In 1984-85 licences were issued

>to farm 2,000 bears. The original target was to issue 40,000 licences by the

>Year 2000. Robinson says grimly: 'If nothing else, our campaign of exposure

>has worked and at least that hasn't happened.' There are still 7,000 bears

>in farms according to official figures, and other estimates are higher. The

>deal worked out between the Chinese government and Animals Asia in July 1999

>commits China to phasing out bear farming altogether. Meanwhile, 500 bears

>will be saved and bear farms are being closed down. The charity pays the

>farmers compensation - 'quite enough to set up an alternative business,'

>says Robinson.

>

>Animals Asia's critics say it has been duped by the authorities into

>allowing the bile trade to continue by providing a humanitarian cover, but

>Robinson believes China is genuine in wanting to eradicate the farms and

>that bear farming will end in her lifetime.

>

>Freedom, a young female whose front paws were lost, presumably when she was

>trapped, is in the enclosure where recovering bears are given their first

>taste of grass, fresh air and water in a pool. She is rolling around,

>clasping tuffs of turf in the stumps of her legs. 'It makes you fit to

>burst,' says Robinson.

>

>Meanwhile, Pooh is now recovering after being released and is waiting for a

>sponsor. It costs £4,500 to sponsor a bear for life and the donor gets to

>name the bear.

>

>

>Animals Asia Foundation can be reached at PO Box 5713, Clacton On Sea, CO15

>6QT, Tel 0870 241 3723, or: www.animalsasia.org