Sharing the planet with humans has been bad for bears. Admittedly, that could be said of most other creatures, apart from bacteria. But bears had a particularly hard time because they looked like men – or so early men thought.

The cruelties meted out to real, as opposed to stuffed bears, notably in Thailand, Vietnam and China, where they are kept in tiny cages and “milked” for their spleen through a tube inserted into their gall bladder. According to Chinese government statistics, by 2005 there was at least 400 bear farms in China, where over 7,000 black bears were "farmed" for bile extraction.


China must now commit to closing down these bear farms (most of them are illegal) still in operation.

There isn't a labeling system or surgical technology around that can make up for what an animal is put through on a bear farm.

Confined to tiny cages their entire lives, the catheters used to draw out bile are usually implanted by farmers with no veterinary training.

Many bears die soon after this operation. Those who survive are "milked" twice a day for bile -- an excruciating procedure that causes the bears to moan and bang their head against the cage or chew their paws.

The conditions in these farms are so filthy that many bears' wounds are infected and their catheters are rusty. Although a normal bear's lifespan is 30 years, bears milked in farms stop producing bile after 5 or 10 years.

They are then left in their cages to die of sickness or starvation or killed to sell their gall bladder and paws which are eaten as a delicacy.

Ultimately, all of us can help put an end to these bear farms by boycotting products containing bear bile, and writing to government officials and asking them to stop this barbaric practice.


source-asianbite