Are bears kept in captivity in China for bile extraction?

Factual Questions
1

I read this email, could be an urban myth, I was wondering if you folks could help me out. I quote:

“Today in China 10,000 bears are kept prisoner for extracting bile from their gall bladders. The bears are kept in a horizontal position, incages that look rather like coffins. A catheter is introduced into their body that continuously absorbs the liquid from their gallbladders…
The bears cannot change their position and remainin this condition of permanent pain between 15 and 20 years!
The bile serves a disgusting market: it is used to produce shampoos, aphrodisiacs and’miraculous’ remedies. During
the extraction of the liquid, a tube is inserted inthe gall bladder; one end of the tube stays outside the belly of the bear, linkedto a machine that extracts the bile.”

So whats the straight dope on this? Is this the opinion of some naive western kid who doesn’t know his facts, or are talking a seriously large case of animal cruelty here?

2

I can’t verify the fact of this claim. However, I thought that they used the Gall Bladder, I didn’t know that the bile was used for anything.

On a seperate point, why does a country of over 1 billion people need aphrodisiacs? It seems that they must be getting right anyway.

3

Well, I’ll be damned…Granted you must take everything that PETA says with a grain of salt.
http://www.peta.org/alert/00/144.html

4

My first thought was that this had to be an UL (most stuff like this that comes down the pipe is, after all).

Unfortunately there is some truth to this.

:frowning:

5

It’s true, but apparently China has promised to stop the practice.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/07/24/china.bears.reut/index.html

6

" . . .apparently China has promised to stop the practice."

Considering their record on human rights, my first reaction is, “yeah, right”.

Of course, maybe their bear bile is more important. One can only speculate.

7

It is, unfortunately, true and well documented. Bear bile extraction farms are legal in China and their business is good. The bears aren’t always kept in coffin like cages, but they barely have enough room to turn either. Young bears are trained to perform tricks to farm visitors. Once of proper age (i.e. enough bile production), permanent bile extraction tubes are implanted into the bears, usually by workers without veterinary training. The wounds are not tended well and often fester for years. When death comes, the palms and foot are cut off and sold as delicacies at restaurants. I cannot confirm the number of bears kept in captivity, but there were a couple hundred legally registered farms in China according to a report from a British animal rights group I read just last week. I cannot find a cite to that article right now, but type in “china bear bile extraction” into any search engine and you’ll find more information than you’d ever wanted to.

8

Cheers folks
Cleared things up a bit.
Not the best news though. I would sleep better at night thinking stuff like this didn’t happen

9

“aphrodisiacs and’miraculous’ remedies”? Id take that with a grain of salt, I mean who would use bile as a aphrodisiac or a remedy? Next they will be saying they use feces for the same.:slight_smile: