(USA + CN) Selling Chinese Bear Bile in San Francisco

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Posted on Wed, Oct. 11, 2006

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/15735325.htm

 

Four Chinatown merchants arrested for selling bear bile Associated

Press SAN FRANCISCO - State wildlife officers arrested four Chinatown

merchants Wednesday on suspicion of selling vials of bear bile for

medicinal uses.

 

Department of Fish and Game wardens made the arrests after merchants

at three San Francisco businesses sold the bile to undercover

officers, charging $30 and up for a vial, said agency spokesman Steve

Martarano.

 

It is a felony to sell any part of a bear in California, according to

the agency.

 

Those arrested were May Tham, 64, and Tit Tham, 69, of the Tung Shing

Trading Co.; Thomas Tsz Wun Chan, 59, of Wing Hop Company Inc.; and

Wei Hao Zeng, 40, of Tung Fong Trading Company.

 

Fish and Game officials believe the fluid may have been imported from

China, where bears are raised on farms to make bile for traditional

Chinese medicine. The bitter, green bile extracted from bear

gallbladders is used to treat eye, liver and other ailments.

 

Animal rights activists have called on China to phase out bear farms,

complaining that the animals are often raised in inhumane conditions.