VN: Animals Asia's rescue of 19 Vietnam bears in NY Times

[Guest guest]

The New York Times

 

Published: January 22, 2010

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

TAN UYEN, Vietnam (AP) -- The three tractor-trailer containers sat in a

row, divided with metal partitions into 19 tiny, sweltering cells.

 

Massive claws and furry black noses poked between the iron bars: 19 rare

Asiatic moon bears awaiting their next gall bladder milking. Their bile

is a coveted traditional medicine ingredient used to treat everything

from hemorrhoids to epilepsy.

 

Some paced nervously inside the cages, panting and foaming at the mouth

with wild bloodshot eyes. Others laid in their urine and feces, resting

on the cool concrete floor. They devoured the bananas and chunks of

watermelon -- including the rinds -- offered to them, a welcome treat

from their usual diet of rice gruel.

 

The bears were found at an illegal Taiwanese-owned operation in southern

Vietnam. On Friday, four days after being hoisted onto tractor trailers

and driven 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) north, they reached a new home

with grass and tire swings at a rescue center about two hours outside of

Hanoi, the capital.

 

The newly rescued bears -- two of them missing limbs and one blind --

were sedated and removed one-by-one from their tiny cages Friday at Tam

Dao National Park. They are joining 29 bears already at the rescue center.

 

Ultrasound tests found evidence of thickened gall bladders, a telltale

sign of milking, said Animals Asia veterinarian Heather Bacon. She said

some may need to have the organ removed because of extensive damage.

 

Many of the black bears, some standing 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall on their

hind legs and weighing 330 pounds (150 kilograms), have been caged since

being snatched from the wild as cubs up to seven years ago, said Tuan

Bendixsen of Animals Asia Foundation in Vietnam, which rescued the bears

this week.

 

Bear bile has been used for thousands of years in Asia to treat fevers,

pain, inflammation and many other ailments. In the 1980s, China began

promoting bear farms as a way to discourage poaching. The bears were

housed in small cages, and the green bitter fluid was sucked from their

gall bladders using crude catheters, sometimes creating pus-filled

abscesses or internal bile leakage. Many bears die slowly from

infections or liver ailments, including cancer.

 

The idea caught on in Vietnam and elsewhere as demand grew alongside the

region's increasing wealth. Bear bile products are also illegally

smuggled into Chinatowns worldwide. An informal survey by the World

Society for the Protection of Animals found 75 percent of stores visited

in Japan selling bear bile products, followed by 42 percent in South

Korea. In the U.S. and Canada, it was about 15 percent.

 

Bear bile harvesting remains legal in China, where the government says

7,000 bears are milked on about 250 farms, though animal welfare groups

say the real number could be double that. Demand for illegal wild bear

bile, believed to be more potent, is also increasing, they say.

 

Amid international pressure, Vietnam outlawed the milking practice in

2005, and some 4,000 bears in captivity were implanted with microchips

to help identify any new bears added illegally. Owners were warned not

to tap them for bile. But the practice continues, and a black market

thrives.

 

''We want this industry to end. Government has decided to phase this

out, and we understand it's going to take time,'' said Chris Gee from

the World Society for the Protection of Animals in England. ''Across the

whole of Asia there's probably 20,000 bears on bear farms.''

 

Last year, a farm in northern Vietnam was raided for selling bile to

busloads of South Koreans, who watched it being extracted as part of

their sightseeing tours. Some of the farms in Vietnam are owned by South

Koreans and Taiwanese.

 

''They're more organized and bigger. They're run like a business now,''

said Bendixsen. ''It's part of a package tour.''

 

Bear bile contains a high concentration of ursodeoxycholic acid. A

synthetic version is sold as a pill and used in Western medicine for

treating gall stones and liver ailments.

 

The pill is sold in China but cannot be used in traditional medicine

because it is not derived from a natural source.

 

In a paper published last year, Yibin Feng from the School of Chinese

Medicine at the University of Hong Kong suggested herbal substitutes

that produce the same healing elements for various ailments could

replace bear bile.

 

Another option is to use bile taken from slaughtered pigs or rabbits,

which contains lower concentrations of ursodeoxycholic acid, or use

artificial bear bile, which has a similar chemical makeup and produces

the same medicinal effects.

 

''We found some animal bile and plants have better effects than bear

bile in some diseases,'' Feng said. ''Given all these, people in China

should accept these alternatives. Of course, some people in mainland

insist that no matter how close those substitutes can be, it is still

not as good as the real ones.''

 

The moon bears, named for the tan crescent-shape marking across their

chests, will remain in quarantine for 45 days. They will then be moved

to a building with large living cells where they will learn to mingle

with other bears, before moving to a bear house where they can play

outside in an enclosure with trees, grass, tunnels and swings.

 

They'll also be spoiled with dollops of honey and peanut butter.

 

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On the Net:

 

Animals Asia Foundation: http://www.animalsasia.org/

 

Angela Leary

Media Manager

Animals Asia Foundation

317-319 Des Voeux Road Central

10/F Kai Tak Building

Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Tel: (852) 2791 2225

Fax: (852) 2791 2320