Bear Bile Farms [China]

Bear bile farm
http://www.sickchirpse.com/chinese-bear-bile-farming/4/

Uses

Bile is a fluid made by the liver and stored in the gallbladder to help aid digestion. It has been used as an ingredient in traditional Asian medicines for thousands of years. The fluid contains high levels of ursodexoycholic acid (UDCA) which has been proven to be effective at treating liver and gallbladder issues. Bear bile is also used as a treatment for fever, heart disease, headaches and cancer, however, there is no evidence to suggest it is effective in treating these problems. There are currently thought to be about 12,000 bears in bile farms across China, Korea, and Laos. 10,000 of which can be found in China alone. There are a number of methods of bile extraction, but all are described as painful and invasive by animal rights activists. This has been disputed by the head of the Chinese Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2012), Fang Shuting, who described the process as 'natural, easy and without pain' and thought that it 'might even be a very comfortable process'. This seems unlikely however, as these bears have catheters or tubes inserted into their gallbladder, some of which are left in permanently. Some bears have holes made in their abdomen and gallbladder, and are then left to allow the bile to drip out. These bears have been seen to display a number of unnatural behaviours associated with severe stress, such as self mutilation and voluntary starvation, and often contract diseases and infection from poor sanitation. It is very rarely disputed that the conditions endured by these bears is horrific and incredibly cruel. 

Purpose

While bear bile farms have been outlawed in countries such as Vietnam, it is still legal and defended by the government, in countries such as China. They claim bear bile farms are an effective way of conserving bear species  by protecting them from poaching. The most commonly found bear in bile farms is the Asian black bear which is classed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list. Sun bears and brown bears are also used, the sun bear is classed as vulnerable while the brown bear is least concern. Prior to the 1980s, bears were hunted and killed for their bile. The bile was collected by removing the gallbladder from dead bears. The first bear farm opened in Korea in 1980 which allowed people to keep bears in cages and extract bile from the gallbladder throughout the bear's life without having to kill the bear. Fang Shuting, claimed that 'bear farming is the best way to protect wild bears' as the market demand was too great to be supported by the wild bear population. Chinese government officials say that without bile farms, an additional 10,000 wild bears would be killed per year. Chris Shepard from the conservation group, Traffic, claimed that there are over 50 alternatives to bear bile available but practitioners are reluctant to use them. 

Bear in bile farm
http://www.mhsuk.com/charity/

Does it help to conserve bears?

The Chinese government claimed that bear bile farms would have a positive impact on the conservation of these bear species as the farms would eliminate the necessity of poaching wild bears. In addition to this, more bile can be extracted throughout the life of a farm bear, than killing a bear in the wild. Many say this hasn't worked as, despite being illegal, it is still cheaper and easier to take bears from the wild than set up a breeding programme within the farm. Jill Robinson, head of Animals Asia, found that within a bear bile farm approximately 30% of bears had 'wounds indicating that they were wild caught'. Breeding bears in captivity involves the additional cost of maintaining denning pens for the bears to breed and providing extra food for the females during pregnancy. Instead, many farms have been accused of keeping bears individually, in cages too small for them to move, underfeeding them, and not providing sufficient water. Many consumers of traditional medicine view bile from the wild as preferable due to its natural appeal, seeming more authentic, and low levels of sanitation seen in bile farms. According to The Guardian 'no countries have shown that farms enhance bear conservation'.  In fact, it has been shown that numbers continue to fall due to habitat destruction and illegal poaching. Since this practice is legal in China, it has also allowed bear bile to be more readily available, and is now being used in more products. In 2012 the IUCN called for the phasing out of bear farms due to a lack of evidence that these farms have helped to lessen the effect of poaching on the bear population.

Alternatives

In 2015, Kaibao Pharmaceuticals, a company that supplied about half of China's bear bile, claimed that it was going to invest the equivalent of £1.3 million into researching an alternative to bear bile. They claimed that this was going to be a poultry bile, likely sourced from poultry farms already present around the country. However, this seems unnecessary as there are already so many natural alternatives to bear bile that have been proven to be effective. Most farms are owned by pharmaceutical companies who will be reluctant to shut down when they supply thousands of jobs to workers and make huge amounts of money from bear bile. The Guardian estimated that Kaibao makes around £40 million a year in net sales from bear bile. In 2011, Animals Asia carried out a poll which suggested that 87% of the Chinese population disagrees with bear bile farming but alternatives need to be accepted by doctors before they replace bear bile in pharmaceuticals in China.


More Information:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160505-asiatic-bear-bile-trade-laos/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2015/apr/09/bear-bile-china-synthetic-alternative
https://www.animalsasia.org/uk/media/news/news-archive/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-bear-bile-farming.html