(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

[Guest guest]

Full story at:

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)

by 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.

 

Many of the bears have injuries from being snared or from poor

treatment in captivity.

 

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.

 

Of the eight species of bears, all except the giant panda have

seen their numbers reduced as a result of the bear bile trade.

 

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.

 

AAF pays compensation per bear for loss of income to the farmers

 

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.

 

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.

 

RELATED STORY:

 

http://asia.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/east/12/03/china.bear.farming/index.html?re

lated

 

RELATED SITE:

http://www.animalsasia.org/