China: AAF rescues 28 more Moon Bears, but it’s too late for seven

[Guest guest]

AAF rescues 28 more Moon Bears, but it’s too late for seven

 

4 April, 2008: Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) has

rescued 28 more Moon Bears, bringing to 248 the

total number of bears saved from a life of

torture on cruel bile farms in China.

 

But one of the emaciated bears brought to AAF’s

rescue centre in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, was

dead on arrival, his body still warm, four have

been euthanised and another two have died from their injuries.

 

AAF founder and CEO, Jill Robinson, said that

these bears had not died in vain. “Each bear that

dies as a result of the barbaric conditions in

which they were kept on the farms leaves behind a

legacy of vital information, which will help to

bring this industry down,” she said.

 

Robinson, who has witnessed countless cases of

severe animal cruelty over the years, said she

was totally shocked by the condition of the 28

bears when they arrived at the sanctuary from a

farm in Ziyang, Sichuan Province on Monday night

(31 March 2008). “All were in impossibly small

cages, all skeletal, wounded in various ways, and

terrified of what would happen in this next stage of their lives,” she said.

 

“Some are blind, some have shattered teeth and

grotesquely ulcerated gums, some have shocking

necrotic wounds – their flesh literally rotting

down to the bones – and all out of their minds

with fear. Most had open wounds in their abdomens

from the free-drip method of bile-extraction,

with some leaking bile, blood and pus,” Robinson said.

 

In July 2000, AAF signed a landmark agreement

with the Sichuan authorities to rescue 500 bears

in the province, to work towards the elimination

of bear farming in China and to promote the herbal alternatives to bear bile.

 

The farmers are compensated financially so they

can either retire or set up in another business.

Their licences are taken away permanently.

 

But many farmers claim that a new catheter-free,

free-drip method of bile extraction – involving

the creation of a permanent hole in the abdomen –

is painless for the bears and that the industry, therefore, is now “humane”.

 

Robinson, however, disputes this claim as flying

in the face of common sense – “this is something

that a 10-year-old would understand – a hole

gouged into the abdomen and gall bladder of a

sentient mammal is neither sanitary nor humane.

The farmers and those who believe them should be ashamed.”

 

She says the latest batch of tormented,

disfigured bears provides further proof that the trade is as brutal as ever.

 

Consumers in China, Japan and Korea have the

highest demand for bear bile. Bear parts, bile

powder and bile products are also found in

Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia,

Singapore, the US and Canada. It is illegal for

bear products to be exported from China, but the

black market trade is thriving. The bile is used

in traditional medicine for a range of complaints

including fever, liver disease and sore eyes.

Synthetic and herbal alternatives are readily available.

 

Two years ago, the European Parliament in

Brussels launched a campaign to urge the Chinese

government to end bear farming by 2008.

 

More than 7,000 bears are still trapped in farms

throughout China. Some have been incarcerated for more than 20 years.

 

Ends

 

For more information, photos and footage, please

go to Jill’s Blog (<http://www.animalsasia.org/blog>www.animalsasia.org/blog).