These alleged gall bladders were kept in a medicated oil box and
locked in a display shelf at a Traditional Chinese Medicine shop in
Singapore.
Bear bile contains an active constituent known as Ursodeoxycholic
Acid (UDCA), which is highly valued in Traditional Chinese
Medicine. For centuries, the prescription for a variety of human
ailments like fever, hemorrhoids conjunctivitis and liver disease
has been death for wild bears.
But all this changed about 20 years ago, when farmers discovered
that they didn't have to kill the bears anymore. They could keep
them alive in cages and extract the bile from them.
As a result, bears became bile machines, bile became an industry
and today, China has the world's largest number of captive bears in
farms.
BEAR FARMS
When the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) studied
bear farms in China in 1999-2000, they found the animals living in
extremely poor conditions.
To extract bile from a captive bear, an opening is surgically made
through the abdominal area and into the gall bladder. A tube is
then inserted to tap the bile. At some farms, a steel stick is
forced through to the gall bladder so that the bile can run
down.
The surgery, if it can be called that, is often performed by farm
owners or members of the staff who have little or no veterinary
training.
50 - 60% of the bears die just from the surgery. And many of them
are left with inflamed and bleeding wounds, open incisions and
tumour swellings in the abdominal area.
The bears are confined individually in cages so small that they can
hardly turn around, sit up, stretch out, and lie down. Some endure
this treatment for as long as 15 years.
Many bears exhibit behavioural problems such as chronic stereotypy,
aggressive behaviour, agitation, nervousness and excessive
inactivity. Some shake their heads continually. While their bile is
being drawn, the bears often twitch, jerk, gnash their teeth,
tremble, kick, bite or moan. When they cannot produce sufficient
bile, the bears are usually put in another cage and left to
die.
Some may even be killed for their paws and gall bladder. Three
farms admitted to WSPA that paws could be cut off if customers
requested fresh paw.