(CN - VN) Why farmers must be paid for stricken bears

April 19, 2008

Apr 19, 2008

South China Morning Post

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I am writing in response to the letter from Paul Surtees ( " Paying farmers

might increase cruelty to bears " , April 15).

Your correspondent questioned whether paying mainland farmers to rescue

bears from bile farms was in fact encouraging this terrible industry.

It is a fair question, but I can assure Mr Surtees that this is definitely

not the case. Let me explain how the agreement with Animals Asia

Foundation's (AAF) government partners works. The authorities identify a

farm for closure (one of the worst). AAF compensates the farmers

financially, so they are not out of pocket. The authorities, which are not

issuing any new bear farming licences, take away the farmers' licence

forever and bring the bears to our rescue centre.

Unfortunately, bile farming is not illegal on the mainland, so the farmers

must consent to their farms being closed. Without financial compensation,

this simply isn't going to happen. The money we provide shows the

authorities and the community that our rescue project is not going to

destroy livelihoods.

In Vietnam, where bear farming is illegal, the agreement with our government

partners is different. We will soon start the first major rescue of farmed

bears in Vietnam. The authorities will simply confiscate the bears and

deliver them to our sanctuary.

We will not compensate the farmers.

Mr Surtees also suggests AAF makes " more strenuous efforts to get the local

authorities to shut down such dreadful operations " . Again, this is a fair

comment and this is exactly what we are doing. We are determined to use the

appalling new evidence of abuse from our latest rescue to win more support

in government.

Last week we met with officials of the China Wildlife Conservation

Association (CWCA) in Beijing and invited the head of the CWCA and the head

of the Sichuan Forestry Department to our sanctuary.

Both were so shocked by what they saw that they promised to take their

concerns to a higher level.

Jill Robinson, founder and chief executive, Animals Asia Foundation

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