There are currently an estimated 7,000 bears on 247 bear bile farms in China. At these farms, the bears are held in cages so small they often cannot stand up. Catheters are surgically implanted so that bile can be extracted from their gallbladders. The bears spend their lives this way. It's a lifetime of confinement and pain, Robinson told Reuters.
Bear bile is a popular part of traditional Asian medicine.
The international trade in bear bile and gallbladders not only causes inhumane treatment of bears on farms but also fuels poaching of wild bears, including those in countries as far from Asia as America, to supply the demand. The Bear Protection Act, currently being considered by the U.S. Congress, and supported by The HSUS, would ban the import, export, and interstate commerce in bear viscera or any product claiming to contain bear viscera. Teresa Telecky, Ph.D., director of The HSUS s Wildlife Trade Program, sees the agreement between the government of China and AAF as significant accomplishment. I congratulate the government of China and the non-governmental organizations on this agreement, which is a first step toward ending the cruel treatment of thousands of bears held on bile extraction farms in Asia. Telecky hopes that the agreement sends a strong message that the extraction of bile from living bears is an unacceptable and unnecessary practice that must come to an end.