Animals Asia in Malaysia Star

[Guest guest]

<http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/lifefocus/>Focus

Tuesday January 10, 2006

 

The painful truth

 

By TAN CHENG LI

 

It's a torturous life for Asiatic black bears which are kept in

inhumane conditions in farms and milked daily for their bile. But a

rescue campaign has saved the black bears from a slow, agonising

death.

 

IT WAS a conservation effort gone awry. To prevent killings of the

Asiatic black bear from the wilds of China, the animals were kept in

farms and milked daily for their digestive juices, a prized

traditional antidote. But the bear farms turned out to be torture

camps, with bears wedged into cages no bigger than their own bodies

and metal catheters forced deep into their gall-bladders to extract

bile. The bears live in agony before dying slowly of chronic

infection.

 

" It started as a way to stop poaching of bears from the wild but

ended up as a misguided attempt at conservation, " says animal welfare

activist Jill Robinson when met recently in Kuching, Sarawak.

 

The brutal practice of bear farming would have persisted and remained

hidden from world view if not for Robinson's tireless crusade.

 

 

Jasper is among some 200 moon bears rescued from bear farms across

China. He now lives in a rehabilitation and rescue centre in Chengdu.

- All pictures courtesy of the Animals Asia Foundation

The founder and chief executive officer of Animals Asia Foundation

brought the pitiless procedures in bear farms to public attention in

1993 and after years of dedicated and painstaking negotiations,

signed a deal with the Chinese Government in 2000 to rescue 500

farmed bears in Sichuan province and to work towards eliminating bear

farming in China.

 

To date, 41 farms in Sichuan have closed down and 200 bears released

into Animal Asia's rescue centre in Chengdu, south-west China.

 

The Chinese have used bear bile to cure various ailments for over

3,000 years. Traditionally, black bears (also called moon bears

because of the golden crescents on their chests) were caught from

forests and cut up for their gall-bladders and other body parts.

 

In the early 1980s, the North Koreans found that by surgically

implanting bears with catheters, bile can be tapped continually

without killing the animals. Bear farming was thus born. By the early

1990s, China had some 500 bear farms holding over 10,000 bears. The

government promoted the practice in the belief that it would satisfy

the demand for bile while preventing the killing of bears.

 

But when Robinson visited one farm in 1993, prompted by a tip-off

from a journalist, she found that all was not well at China's bear

farms. She found, to her horror, sick bears imprisoned in tiny cages.

 

" It was a torture chamber, a hell hole for animals. They couldn't

move, they couldn't stand up, they couldn't turn around. The bears

were subjected to painful methods of bile extraction which involved

crude surgery to implant a steel catheter into their abdomens. Many

bears died from infection as a result of the unsanitary surgery, "

said Robinson who was then working for the International Fund for

Animal Welfare,

 

That visit triggered the bear rescue campaign. The government was

pressured into closing down some of the worst offenders, outlawed the

capture of wild bears, banned the use of stainless steel catheter

implants, set minimum cage size and forced farmers to use half of

their stock for breeding. Animals Asia compensated the closed farms.

 

Robinson chalked up one of her first successes when the farm she

visited in 1993 was closed in 1995. The rescued bears were released

into a small sanctuary. She founded Animals Asia Foundation in 1998

and following the landmark agreement with the Chinese Government, set

up the bear rescue centre in 2000.

 

The deal was a result of long-drawn, tedious negotiations.

Fortunately, Robinson is backed by years of experience dealing with

cultural sensitivities, having worked on animal welfare issues in

Hong Kong since 1985. She left Britain with her husband 20 years ago

but her plans of getting a research job with a Hong Kong TV station

were scuttled when she got involved with and later joined the

International Fund for Animal Welfare.

 

" To develop trust with the government, I stressed that there's

nothing in it for me personally. It's all to save the bears. I've

learnt not to be aggressive and antagonistic, and to find solutions

instead of merely criticising. I believe the government wants

bear-farming to end but does not have a solution, " says Robinson.

 

 

The Chinese Government has not issued new bear farm licences since

1994 but some 7,000 bears still live in wretched conditions on more

than 200 farms.

Animals Asia holds talks for the public and traditional medicine

practitioners, to create awareness on the cruelty of bear farming and

herbal alternatives for bear bile. At medical universities, students

are encouraged to pledge not to prescribe bear bile. Chinese doctors

agree that bear bile can be replaced with herbal and synthetic

alternatives which are both inexpensive and effective.

 

The Sichuan Forestry Department says the work of Animals Asia in that

province has led to the number of farmed bears declining from 2,700

to 2,300. The Chinese Government has not issued new bear farm

licences since 1994 but, says Robinson, neither has it categorically

said that it will ban bear farming.

 

And so, the cruel practice continues. Some 7,000 bears still live in

wretched conditions in over 200 farms located mainly in four

provinces: Heilongjiang and Jilin in the North, and Sichuan and

Yunnan in the South.

 

Many farmers continue to flout laws on the use of catheter implants

and cage sizes. In recent years, farmers have introduced what they

claim to be a humane method of bile extraction.

 

A hole is cut in the bear's abdomen, from which bile drips out. A

tube is forced into the gall-bladder to tap the bile. Animals Asia

found the " free drip " method, as it is called, to be every bit as

cruel and damaging as earlier ones. Bears develop infection from the

open hole and from bile leaking back into the abdomen, and eventually

die a slow, painful death.

 

" The industry is deceiving the government, saying that there are new

equipment and methods which are humane. It is anything but. And it is

our job to show the government that the claims are not true, " says

Robinson.

 

In her years of investigating bear farms, Robinson has seen few which

are well managed. " Some appear to be but if you scrutinise closely,

you will see bears with infections. " Robinson finds that the farmers

often have no idea that the bears are suffering.

 

Most rescued bears arrive at the Animals Asia centre bone thin,

desperately ill and terrified, and in need of intensive veterinary

attention. Many do not survive. Today, the rescue centre is home to

154 bears. The facility has a semi-wild setting - created with a

bamboo forest, climbing frames, fruit and honey trails, hanging logs,

tunnels and pools - to provide a stimulating environment for

rehabilitation of the bears.

 

But none of the bears can be released. Held captive for too long,

they cannot survive in the wild. Some were bred in captivity or

poached from the wild as cubs and thus, lack survival skills. Many

have missing limbs as they were snared. Some have had their claws and

teeth cut off to make them defenceless.

 

The rescued bears are neutered to prevent breeding since the facility

has limited space. But more keep arriving. Last January, 45 bears

came and in September, another nine.

 

" The focus that keeps us going is that we're going to stop the

industry. It's too cruel, too horrendous, for any country to

tolerate, " says Robinson, whose work in animal welfare has received

global recognition. She is a recipient of the Readers Digest " Hero

for Today " award (in 1995), a Genesis Award from the Ark Trust (2002)

and an MBE (Member of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth II

(1998).

 

" When the truck arrives, the bears are in such a pitiful state that

you know they're really at death's door but knowing that your work

will stop that is what drives us. "

 

And with 7,000 bears still caged in China and over 3,400 in Vietnam

where bear farming is still rife, Robinson and her team at the

foundation have the future all mapped out. As she puts it: " We've got

a job for life. "