Concern over bears being farmed in cruel conditions for their bile

On an ornamental plant farm in northern Vietnam’s Ninh Binh province, four Asiatic black bears have languished for years in small cages inside a dark shed.With no room to walk, the bears, some of them missing paws, tend to sway repetitively in what zoologists consider a sign of psychological distress in many mammals.The bears’ owner formerly kept them for their bile but has since quit the practice, according to a Vietnamese forest ranger who recently escorted reporters to the farm.“In reality, they do not raise these bears illegally, but it is a problem lingering from the past,” says Dinh Thi Thuan, the head of conservation at Ninh Binh province’s Forest Protection Department.Around 1,200 black bears in Vietnam are estimated to be in private hands for their bile, an ingredient used in traditional Chinese medicine.Although the number of captive bears is down from 5,000 eight years ago, levels are still “unacceptably high,” says Kieran Harkin, head of Wild Animal Campaigns for the Vienna-based charity Four Paws, which has launched a global public awareness campaign on the plight of Vietnam’s bears.Bile extraction is a “cruel process” and “completely unnecessary,” Harkin says. Unlike China, which has a regulated bear-bile industry, the practice in Vietnam has been illegal since 2005.“Vietnam stands out because there’s an appetite from the government to do something real here and put it away,” Harkin says.Under Vietnamese law, bile is banned, but a loophole allows bears to be kept as pets provided they are mircochipped – in order to be tracked – and not used for bile.But critics say that enforcement is lax, as bile remains easily obtainable online and at medicine shops throughout the country.Bear gallbladders, which contain bile, have long been consumed in East Asia to treat a number of conditions related to various internal organs. North Korea developed modern bile farming in the 1980s.Using an ultrasound imager on an anaesthetised bear to locate the gallbladder, a farmer will puncture the organ to extract the bile.In more extreme cases documented in China, bears have been kept completely immobilised in metal casing for years, with permanent catheters continuously extracting their bile.Bile’s popularity endures partially because it contains ursodeoxycholic acid, which is prescribed in modern medicine in synthetic form to treat liver and gallbladder conditions. Nguyen Xuan Huong, a traditional medicine practitioner and the chair of the Traditional Medicine Association of Vietnam, says bear bile has no legitimate place in his trade. It could even be dangerous for the liver due to toxic biochemicals, he added.“I have seen three patients killed by bear bile, including one of my friends,” he says, adding that he thinks bile farmers in Vietnam should be more vigorously pursued.The practice in Vietnam, he says, is a Chinese cultural import.“The Chinese have two traditional medicines that use bear bile as an ingredient, but the Vietnamese do not have any,” says Huong, adding that bile was not very popular among most Vietnamese people.Bile remains easy to purchase online in Vietnam. One website advertises delivery of bile within 30 minutes to anywhere in Hanoi for 80,000 dong (3.50 dollars) per cubic centimetre.The medical uses for bile range from post-cosmetic surgery treatments to seizures, the site claims.For the trade to end, the government must remove the loopholes, crack down on vendors and provide the legal backing necessary to confiscate bears and place them in sanctuaries, Harkin says.“Everything on a bear farm is the opposite of a bear’s natural habitat. There’s nothing on a bear farm that even comes close to meeting the needs of a bear,” Harkin said. – DPA