China should close down rest of bear bile farms

There isn’t a labeling system or surgical technology around that can make up for what an animal is put through on a bear farm. Confined to tiny cages their entire lives, the catheters used to draw out bile are usually implanted by farmers with no veterinary training. Many bears die soon after this operation. Those who survive are “milked” twice a day for bile — an excruciating procedure that causes the bears to moan and bang their head against the cage or chew their paws.

The conditions in these farms are so filthy that many bears’ wounds are infected and their catheters are rusty. Although a normal bear’s lifespan is 30 years, bears milked in farms stop producing bile after 5 or 10 years. They are then left in their cages to die of sickness or starvation or killed to sell their gall bladder and paws which are eaten as a delicacy.

Ultimately, all of us can help put an end to these bear farms by boycotting products containing bear bile, and writing to government officials and asking them to stop this barbaric practice.

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