Bear Bile Practice Draws Criticism in China

Cross Posted from the Spokesman-Review

A storm of criticism in China over share listing plans by a company that sells tonics made with bear bile is highlighting the increasingly affluent country’s changing attitudes toward the environment and wildlife.

Reports Friday said dozens of well-known entertainers, writers and other celebrities signed a petition to the China Securities Regulatory Commission urging it to withhold approval for the initial public offering by Guizhentang, a Chinese medicines maker. The company is awaiting approval for a share listing in Shenzhen.

Hundreds of thousands of comments on “weibo,” the Chinese version of Twitter, blasted the company for extracting bile from bears.

Animal rights groups contend the practice of bear bile farming is cruel because the animals are confined to small cages and milked of bile through catheters inserted into fistulas, or permanent wounds, in their gall bladders.

They say that antibiotics used to counter chronic infections from the practice, and other contaminants in the bile, also pose a hazard to human health.

A photo on the front page of the state-run newspaper China Business News on Friday showed a satirical photo montage of a caged bear, its muzzle bloodied, with a picture of the head of the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicines, Fang Shuting, quoted as saying that bears are “very comfortable” while the bile is extracted.

News reports cited Fang as saying China has 68 licensed bear farms and more than 10,000 bears farmed for their bile, which can cost up to $635 a kilogram.

A spokesman for Guizhentang, who gave his surname as “Xu,” refused comment.

Officials at the CSRC said they could not comment on an IPO plan under consideration.

Animal rights are gaining increasing attention in China, with public figures such as basketball star Yao Ming and actor Jackie Chan speaking out against eating shark fins and other customs that many view as cruel or a threat to endangered species.

The change reflects both a growing awareness of the need to protect the environment and wildlife and also increasing affluence among many ordinary Chinese who now keep pets, travel overseas and have changing attitudes toward traditions they may not have questioned in the past.

In recent years, for example, animal protection groups have staged mass releases of cats and dogs caged for shipment to restaurants and markets, where they are slaughtered for dishes considered to be delicacies or especially nourishing.

The petition to the stock watchdog from more than 70 celebrities and environmental protection groups seeks to block the IPO and urges the use of synthetic substitutes for bear bile, which is a digestive substance made in the liver and stored in the gall bladder.

The main active ingredient in the bile is ursodeoxycholic acid, or UDCA, which is thought to act as an anti-inflammatory and is used to treat gallstones and liver ailments. It is mainly taken from the Asiatic black bear, a protected but not endangered species in China.

Chinese media reports cited Fang as defending Guizhentang’s bile-collecting practices in a news conference in Beijing, after visiting its facilities in southeast China’s Fujian province.

“Collecting bile is like turning on a tap. It’s painless, natural and simple. I didn’t see bears suffering in the process,” Caijing magazine quoted Fang as saying.

“After the bile is extracted, bears can still drink milk and honey and have fun in the farm.”

Farmed bears live about four or five years, while those in the wild live up to 30, according to the Animals Asia Foundation, which has been working to close down bear farms and rescue the animals.

Posted in News.

6 Comments

  1. “Because one species is more clever than another, does it give it the right to imprison or torture the less clever species? Does one exceptionally clever individual have a right to exploit the less clever individuals of his own species? [‘dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.’— Mark Twain] To say that he does is to say with the Fascists that the strong have a right to abuse and exploit the weak—might is right, and the strong and ruthless shall inherit the Earth.”—Richard Ryder

  2. “At bile farms in China and Vietnam, some 12,000 bears are kept in cages not large enough for them to stand in. A permanent hole gaping from their stomachs is used by the bear keepers to tap bile from the animals’ gal bladder daily.”

    “To prevent the bears from killing themselves they are placed in metal harnesses that allow the keepers to tap the animals’ gal bladder for some 20 years. The bears are sitting on a metal bar floor that prevents them from hibernating.

    According to an undercover investigation by animal protection organization WSPA, they witnessed a mother bear breaking free from her cage when she heard her cup screaming from pain when its stomach was pierced with a rod to create the permanent hole in the cup’s stomach.

    In full rage, the mother bear stormed to the cage where her cup was held. The keepers ran away. Then the bear proceeded to grab the cup by its neck and wrangle it through the cage’s metal bar to freedom.

    Once the cup was freed, the mother strangled her cup with a death bite. Then she turned and full speed and full force slammed her head in a brick wall and killed herself.”

    http://www.nodeju.com/13085/mistreated-bear-commits-suicide.html

  3. Es una lástima que nobles animales -antes solo vistos en estado salvaje- ahora estén siendo utilizados para oscuros negocios. Nuestro planeta está sufriendo la peor agonía de todos los tiempos, por eso es urgente que la gente conciente unifique esfuerzos para luchar por preservar nuestros bosques y la vida salvaje. Un control demográfico es imperativo.
    It’s a shame that noble animals, which had never been seen before but in the wild world, are now being used for dirty business. Our planet is undergoing the worst agony of all times, that’s why it is urgent that conscious people unify efforts in order to work to preserve our forests and wild life. We urgently need a demografic control, that’s imperative.

  4. STOP BEAR BILE FARMING. we live in 2014 and it is disgusting to know SUCH CRUELTY and EVIL is being done to animals. SAVAGE Humans must npt get away with this. we must put pressure on the government to change the legislation to protect animals. CHINA – Korea – Vietnam MUST PROTEST and STOP Animal cruelty in zoo’s and bear bile farms

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