FW:China's bile bears finding sanctuary

[Guest guest]

http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/05/28/china.moon.bear/index.html

 

China's bile bears finding sanctuary

May 29, 2002 Posted: 9:28 AM HKT (0128 GMT)

 

Nick Easen

CNN

 

HONG KONG, China -- An ambush by security forces

recently took place in Russia not far from the Chinese

border, with agents firing at suspected smugglers as

they tried to cross the porous frontier.

 

Yet Russia's federal security service were not trying

to stop the passage of money, cigarettes or fake VCDs

across the border, but wildlife.

 

In this case their suspicions were well-founded,

inside the vehicle were 18 Asiatic black bear cubs,

their likely destination was a bile farm in China.

 

Bears are the only mammals to produce significant

amounts of the bile fluid, ursodeoxycholic acid

(UDCA). And at $10 a teaspoonful it is one of the most

expensive traditional Chinese medicines.

 

The lucrative farming practice means that up to 7,000

bears in 247 Chinese farms are confined to small cages

with catheters surgically implanted into their gall

bladders.

 

Animal-rights groups, such as the Animals Asia

Foundation (AAF), say bear bile can be replaced by

herbs or synthetically made substances, and are

continuing to rescue bears from the worst farms in

China.

 

" Ten percent of the bears are handicapped (because of)

the farmer or when they were snared. Some have three

legs, others have broken teeth, " Annie Mather of AAF

told CNN.

 

AAF now looks after 65 freed Asiatic black bears also

known as " Moon Bears " because of the white crescent

shape on their chest, and plans to take another 40

bears from defunct farms this summer.

 

The breakthrough with the government came in July

2000, when the China Wildlife Conservation Foundation

and the Sichuan State Forestry signed an agreement

with AAF to free 500 of the most needy bears from

captivity.

 

The agreement came following international pressure to

ban the 3,000 year-old practice used to obtain the

bear's bile -- activists say farming bears is

unnecessary and barbaric.

 

Bamboo haven

 

AAF has already established a rescue center outside of

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province to receive

bile bears.

 

Now a blueprint exists for a permanent semi-natural

sanctuary in a bamboo forest to eventually

rehabilitate and accommodate the rest.

 

" The best way to design somewhere for them, is to

understand them " Jill Cheshire, who is the architect

of the new bear environment, told CNN.

 

The sanctuary aims to educate local people about the

bile bears and their plight, yet provide a natural

environment where the bears can be rehabilitated after

years in captivity.

 

Cheshire told CNN that by throwing out all cage-like

material and bringing in glass and open spaces the

physical and mental state of the bears can be

improved.

 

Farming not illegal

 

The first bear farm was closed in October 2000, and

the bears were brought to the rescue center, yet it is

still not illegal to farm bears in China.

 

Farms are strictly licensed, yet it is illegal by law

to get Asiatic bears from the wild -- a law that is

hard to enforce.

 

Ironically bile bear farming as an occupation for

poverty stricken farming areas was introduced to

protect bears in the wild.

 

However, the demand has driven the poaching of bears

from their natural habit in China -- mainly in Western

Sichuan and Heilongjiang province and over the border

in Russia.

 

Now, AAF says, there is an over production in bear

bile and this can be seen with the sale of both bear

bile shampoo and soda in order to stimulate demand.

 

Lengthy incarceration

Animal activists say the surgery to insert the

catheter implants is crude and unsanitary and many of

the bears die as a result.

 

The bears that survive spend the rest of their lives

in a confined existence in wire crates where they

cannot stretch, enduring daily extraction of their

bile.

 

Many of the small unregistered and unregulated farms,

where one or two bears are kept in a farmer's

backyard, are considered to be far worse for the bears

than the larger farms.

 

If freed by the AAF, the animals are taken to the

Chengdu rescue center, where they require intensive

and expensive medical treatment to remove the

implanted catheters from their gall bladders.

 

Then comes the healing process from the physical and

psychological scars caused by the long, painful years

of incarceration -- the bears, which live to 30 years

are both intelligent and docile.

 

In many cases the bears have little or no survival

skills because many were taken from the wild at a very

young age.

 

© 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

 

 

 

 

 

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