(CN) The Telegraph -- article on AAF's Moon Bear Rescue

[Guest guest]

(Photos at link)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/03/eabears103.xml

 

Bears rescued from 'hellish' Chinese bile farm By Paul Eccleston Last

Updated: 2:01pm BST 03/04/2008

 

The 28 Moon bears were in a pitiful condition when they were brought to

a rescue centre in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Bears in the conditions

they were found in at the Chinese bile farm.

 

A wound for draining bile can be seen on the bear on the right stomach.

Workers from the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) tragically found one male

bear dead when it arrived, its body still warm. Another had to be put

down and another died of its injuries within hours of arrival. AAF

Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson who has worked for 10 years in Asia

rescuing bears and trying to put an end to the farms, said she was

shocked by the condition of the animals. " 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. " The latest rescue of the bears brings

the total rescued by AAF from Chinese bile farms to 248. Jill Robinson

launched AAF after visiting a farm and describing it as " hellish " and " a

torture chamber for animals " . In July 2000, AAF signed a landmark

agreement with the Sichuan authorities to rescue 500 bears in the

province, and to work towards the elimination of bear farming in China

and to promote the herbal alternatives to bear bile. The farmers are

given compensation so they can retire or set up new businesses and their

licences are taken away permanently. Bear bile, like rhino horn and

tiger parts, is highly prized for use in Chinese traditional medicines.

A chinese rural farmer with an income of just over £1 per week can sell

a kilo of bear bile for £150. Although synthetic alternatives to the

bile are now widely available the illicit trade continues to flourish

condemning bears caught in traps in the wild to unimaginable horrors.

Often the animals caught in steel traps lose paws and then injure

themselves further because of the appalling and cramped conditions in

tiny cages. Asiatic black bears, known as Moon Bears because of the

golden crescents on their chests, can end up spending up to 25 years in

coffin-sized cages where they are 'milked' daily for their bile, often

through crude and filthy catheters causing the animals intense pain. The

bears are also milked through permanently open holes in their abdomens

in what is claimed to be a more humane free-dripping technique. It is

the only permitted method of bile extraction in China, but still causes

constant pain and the slow death of the bears. But Jill Robinson said

the method was still patently cruel. " 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 said the

latest batch of tormented and disfigured bears provided further proof

that the trade is as brutal as ever. Although the trade in bear products

is illegal in China there is a flourishing black market. The demand for

bear bile is greatest in China, Japan and Korea but bear parts, bile

powder and bile products are also found in Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia,

Malaysia, Singapore, the US and Canada. The bile is still used in

traditional medicine for a range of complaints including fever, liver

disease and sore eyes. Two years ago, the EU launched a campaign to urge

the Chinese government to end bear farming by 2008. It is though there

are more than 7,000 bears are still trapped in farms throughout China.

AAF employs 150 local on-site staff at its Chengdu sanctuary which costs

about £50,000 per month to run, and where remarkably the bears do learn

to recover from their ordeal.