Freeing China's Caged Bile Bears

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0425-09.htm

 

Published on Monday, April 25, 2005 by the San Francisco Chronicle

 

 

Freeing China's Caged Bile Bears

 

Animal activists aim to curtail trade in traditional remedy

 

by Kathleen E. McLaughlin, Chronicle Foreign Service

 

CHENGDU, CHINA -- Jill Robinson's life was forever changed when she

stole away from her tour group on a Chinese bear bile farm and

descended a flight of stairs to a dark basement, where she saw the

dim outlines of cages.

 

" I actually didn't understand what I was seeing at first, " Robinson

says. " Then it made me sick to my stomach. "

 

Dozens of bears, kept alive only for their bile, were trapped in

cages so small they couldn't move, their bellies spiked with crude,

dirty, often- infected devices to allow the farmers to " milk " their

bile twice a day and sell the fluid secreted by the liver as

medicine.

 

Suddenly, one of the bears reached a paw out of its cage. Unaware

that moon bears, an endangered Asian black bear species named for

the yellow crescent on its chest, are among the most aggressive of

bears, Robinson spontaneously grabbed the animal's paw and held it.

She marvels that she still has her arm.

 

" In years later, it has shaken me and made me really believe there

was a message there, " she says.

 

Now the soft-spoken Briton, who went on to found Animals Asia

Foundation, based in Hong Kong, is pressing the Chinese government

to ban bear farming outright before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing

and close down the farms where, according to the World Society for

the Protection of Animals, 7,000 caged bears are being milked for

their bile.

 

It is not an easy battle to win. Bear bile has been used in Chinese

medicine for centuries to treat a variety of ailments, from

inflammation and heart disease to impotence, Parkinson's disease

and liver ailments.

 

Still, Robinson has had some success in her crusade to save the

captive bears.

 

A Moon Bear Rescue center she started in Chengdu, Sichuan province,

has grown steadily, particularly since the foundation signed an

agreement with local government officials to help shut down the

worst of China's bear farms. So far, she has saved 185 bears.

 

The animals arrive at the 25-acre refuge, after being purchased

from farmers for a price Robinson will not disclose, in crude

devices such as " crush cages " with brackets used to force the

bear's body down so it cannot move while its bile is being

extracted. Full metal jackets, encasing a bear's entire torso,

prevent it from ripping out the painful tube in its gall bladder,

the organ in which bile from the liver is stored.

 

The rescued bears carry their own peculiar scars. Truncated paws,

where farmers have cut off entire toes rather than declawing the

bears. Missing and broken teeth from chewing on the metal bars of

their cages. Patchy hair from malnutrition. Head wounds from " cage

rage " -- repeatedly banging their heads on the metal bars of their

tiny cells.

 

Veterinary surgeon Dr. Kati Loeffler tries to save the damaged

bears. In one recent surgery, she operated on a bear named Minnie

who carried a crude catheter wired into place, buried under two

pounds of scar tissue.

 

" This can never be a humane industry, " Robinson says.

 

The central government did not respond to requests for comment, but

recently Beijing has allowed state-run media to carry a number of

high-profile television and newspaper reports exposing cruel

practices on the farms, an indication that forces in Beijing are

beginning to lean against the practice.

 

In February, Vietnam signed an agreement with the society to phase

out its bile farms, where an estimated 3,000 bears are held, a move

that could put pressure on China and Korea to close bear farms on

their soil.

 

Meanwhile, however, the steady stream of bile from farms is

creating a burgeoning market for the product, not only in Asia but

around the world, experts say.

 

A 2000 report by the society found bear gall bladders and bear bile

medicines for sale in several U.S. cities, including in San

Francisco's Chinatown, even though sale of the product is illegal

in California.

 

The farms now produce an estimated 141,000 ounces of bear bile each

year, outstripping even the growing consumer demand. In response,

drug companies have started using excess bile in alternative

products like shampoo, wine and health teas.

 

" We've reached the state now where we are incredibly frustrated

with the inaction, " Robinson says. " We are appealing, just begging

the government to do something about this. "

 

The farms have few outspoken advocates, but among them is Dr. Fan

Zhiyong, head the fauna division of China's office of the

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, better

known as CITES. Last year, Fan called for new rules to allow China

to export bear-bile products.

 

" China has a large market demand for bear bile, " Fan wrote in a

widely distributed paper in 2003. " If it were not satisfied with

bile powder from bear farms, this demand would attract poachers to

kill wild bears, which would really endanger the survival of bears

in China, and even of bears in other countries. "

 

Indeed, China's bear farms sprang up after China outlawed the

killing of native bears -- all listed as endangered species -- in

the 1980s.

 

However, bear farm opponents argue that synthetic bear bile --

ursodeoxycholic acid, or UDCA -- is cheaper and just as effective.

Professor Liu Cheng Cai, a medical instructor at Chengdu Military

Hospital, one of China's top traditional medicine centers, says

herbs and other medications negate the need for the animals' bile.

 

At one major pharmacy in Beijing, bear bile powder -- golden flecks

packaged in small glass vials -- sells for nearly $100 for two

grams. In a sign that the campaign to substitute herbal remedies

for bear bile may be gaining ground, the pharmacist said it works

especially well on liver diseases but is not very popular these

days because of the availability of cheaper alternatives.

 

Meanwhile, word of Robinson's crusade is spreading. Visitors to the

organization's Web site, www.animalsasia.org, are signing up to

support the sanctuary with donations ranging from $5 for a pot of

honey to $3,500 for a bear den. Superstar Hong Kong actress and

singer Karen Mok has signed on as spokeswoman for the foundation,

and crocodile hunter Steve Irwin filmed a segment in February on

veterinary surgery at the sanctuary.

 

Although rescued bears cannot be released to the wild, having long

since lost their survival skills, they are freer at the sanctuary

than they have been in years.

 

At the center, which costs $80,000 a month to operate, more than

100 roam between indoor stalls and outdoor play areas, hanging in

basket beds and climbing on timber toys.

 

New arrivals await surgery to remove catheters and repair wounds,

pacing about in cages substantially larger than the ones they had

been confined in, getting used to being able to move around. They

work on simple puzzles -- such as finding fruit hidden in small

logs -- to challenge brains and muscles atrophied by years of

confinement.

 

Some of the animals, ranging in size from the stunted 50-pound

Franzi to the 7-foot-tall, 300-plus pound male named Emma, even eat

fruit from workers' hands.

 

" When you think they were consistently enduring all those pain

sensations all their lives ... " says Robinson, her voice trailing

off. " We wouldn't be so forgiving as a species. "

 

© 2005 San Francisco Chronicle