[Find out about the opposition to Chinese Bear Bile farms here]
The Chinese media has reported on an extraordinary account of a mother bear saving her cub from a life of torture by strangling it and then killing itself.
The bears were kept in a farm located in a remote area in the North-West of
China. The bears on the farm had their gall bladders milked daily for ‘bear bile,’
which is used as a remedy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
It was reported that the bears are kept in tiny cages known as ‘crush cages’,
as the bears have no room to manoeuvre and are literally crushed.
The bile is harvested by making a permanent hole or fistula in the bears’
abdomen and gall bladder.
As the hole is never closed, the animals are suspect to various infections and
diseases including tumours, cancers and death from peritonitis.
The bears are fitted with an iron vest, as they often try to kill themselves by
hitting their stomach as they are unable to bear the pain.
A person who was on the farm in place of a friend witnessed the procedures
and told Reminbao.com that they were inhumane.
The witness also claimed that a mother bear broke out its cage when it heard
its cub howl in fear before a worker punctured its stomach to milk the bile.
The workers ran away in fear when they saw the mother bear rushing to its
cub’s side.
Unable to free the cub from its restraints, the mother hugged the cub and
eventually strangled it.
It then dropped the cub and ran head-first into a wall, killing itself.
Many TCM practitioners have denounced the use of bear bile in their
treatment as there are cheaper herbs and synthetics that can be used in its
place.
Bear bile is traditionally used to remove ‘heat’ from the body as well as treat
high fever, liver ailments and sore eyes.
Article cross posted from AsiaOne
!OH , DIOS ! EL SER HUMANO ES EL ANIMAL MAS CRUEL DE LA NATURALEZA . POR FAVOR , QUE DESAPAREZCAN ESAS GRANJAS DONDE EXTRAEN LA BILIS A LOS POBRES OSOS . ELLOS SUFREN TERRIBLEMENTE . SON MUY INTELIGENTES Y SE DAN CUENTA DE TODO . TIENEN SENTIMIENTOS , COMO ESTA MADRE QUE HA PREFERIDO MATAR A SU HIJO Y SUICIDARSE ELLA , ANTES DE SEGUIR SUFRIENDO . !OH , DIOS!
This is horrible. The Chinese government is morbid! look what they have done to the Falon Gong monks, the organ harvesting and genocide. This one really did not make my day any happier…
What Man does to his fellow Earth bound creatures for His stupid own means end, is abhorring and sinister. No Rights, No Empathy .. No Wonder we will ALL suffer for the acts of self-supremacy over these lives we have deemed inferior ..
You speak such truth, there is no excuse for this kind of cruelty.
This is so sad, I wonder what we could do as individuals to stop such torture and inhumane treatment. Animals are our equals and this kind of behavior needs to stop.
The Earth First! Newswire received the following comment from Animals Asia:
“From time to time a story appears in the Chinese media about a bear that kills her cub and then herself to escape the pain of bear farming. This story has not been verified. Bears clearly suffer both physically and psychologically in the terrible conditions on farms, but we cannot confirm that such trauma resulting from bear farm captivity could lead to a mother killing her cub and then herself.”
Dr Jill Robinson MBE, Founder and CEO of Animals Asia
Website: http://www.animalsasia.org/
You can find out more about us here: http://www.youtube.com/user/HKAAF#p/u/11/PENl5091uAM
Pingback: Opposition to bear farms in China « Earth First! Newswire
Personally I think this story has a very high antropomorphic nature. I have a very hard time believing this.
The situation concerning these animals is bad as it is, I wonder whether one could consider it a good strategy to spread such stories, which appeal to people by attributing human characteristics to these animals, but aren’t verified for there factuality.
what are the bears fed to keep them alive? It’s a shame that the bears cannot just stop eating and starve themselves to death. This is a far worse fate than an animal on a factory farm because the bears die a thousand deaths over and over.
Make it Easy to Comment I leave a lot of comments on a lot of blogs each week – but there is one situation where I rarely leave a comment – even if the post deserves it – blogs that require me to login before making a comment. Maybe I’m lazy (actually there’s no maybe about it) or maybe there’s something inside me that worries about giving out my personal details..
Good point. I’m not sure how we do that. It seems like wordpress is creepy that way.
God, don’t forgive us.. we are all shameless..