AAF China Bear Rescue Project halfway to 500

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

 

 

AAF China Bear Rescue Project halfway to 500

 

CHENG DU-- " Madam Xiong, literally Madam Bear, of the

Sichuan Forestry Department has kept her promise of closing a bear

bile farm before the end of March--and 28 newly rescued bears are

here! " Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill Robinson e-mailed to

supporters at 8:09 p.m. on March 31.

The new arrivals brought the number of ex-bile farm bears

handled by the China Bear Rescue Project since July 2000 to

248--almost halfway to the total of 500 whom Robinson agreed to

accept if the Sichuan government closed the smallest, oldest bear

bile farms in the state. The survivors have become nationally

publicized witnesses against the cruelty of keeping bears in close

confinement to extract bile from their gall bladders. Bear bile is

used for a variety of purposes in traditional Chinese medicine, but

chiefly to relieve fever. About 7,000 bears remain on bile farms.

Few bears received at Chengdu have been in worse shape than

the March 31 group, the Animals Asia Foundation staff soon learned.

" All were in impossibly small cages, skeletal, wounded in various

ways, and terrified, " Robinson said. " Some are blind, some have

shattered teeth and grotesquely ulcerated gums, and some have

shocking necrotic wounds from the free-drip method of

bile-extraction. One of the emaciated bears was dead on arrival,

his body still warm. "

One more bear died and six were euthanized during the next

week, due to advanced liver cancer or gall bladder tumors.

" I would seriously question the quality of the bile and the

health of the population who would take it, " Robinson told Kelly

Chan of the South China Morning Post.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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