# Bile bears **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 27, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bile-bears/590506 "2011-07-27T17:12:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bile-bears/590506/21 "2011-07-29T02:52:45Z")
This kind of thing is pretty disturbing, but considering that human rights are still often violated in China it is not surprising that animals are not given much consideration there. I hope that sometime in my lifetime we see compassion for both human lives and animal lives there. ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bile-bears/590506/22 "2011-07-29T20:05:34Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Well, animal suffering is visible, it doesn’t require a “concept.” Some sort of systematic blind spot is involved, but it’s not as simple nor as innocent as a complete inability to form the concept. Besides, Westerners have told them. Once you’re told something, you can’t claim it never occurred to you. “Don’t fucking care,” sure, but not “My God, it never occurred to me!” > > Ah, sympathetic magic. FWIW, I think some Chinese would take umbrage at the assertion that “Westerners have told them, so why don’t they listen?” - unless I’m being whooshed (it happens a lot). Honestly, I think the Asian cultures in general, and specifically Chinese culture, don’t really give much credence to Western mores when they conflict. There seems to be this sense of “well, it’s worked for us for a few thousand years, when those Westerners who weren’t living in caves were demonstrating their concern for animal rights by staging fights between lions and elephants in the Colosseum.” As for the mindset behind this attitude towards animal rights, I once had a coworker of Chinese descent explain it thusly (paraphrasing from memory): > [@](#): > > You know when a tree makes a loud noise when it falls? That’s essentially how some Asian cultures see animals - any visible signs of suffering are just chalked up to “Well, that’s just the sound a (whale makes when you harpoon it/bear makes when you suck out its bile/tiger makes when you cut off its junk/etc.)”. They see animals as just another natural resource to be used as efficiently as possible - if they make a little noise, how’s it different from the noise a tree makes when you chop it down? He wasn’t defending their treatment of animals - actually, he’s pretty appalled by it, being second-generation Chinese-American, and vegetarian to boot. He merely offered that by way of explanation. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bile-bears/590506/23 "2011-08-01T01:12:23Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > There is no concept of animal rights in China or indeed in most of the non-Western world. This is not intended to be some kind of slur against those places, just a statement of fact. Animals are to be used by humans and every bit of their possible value to humans is to be extracted, without any regard for the “feelings” of the animal - and it’s not because they’re cold psychopaths, it’s because they simply don’t have the concept of an animal having “feelings.” They have no concept of HUMAN rights either, so it follows that animals would be just as bad off. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bile-bears/590506/24 "2011-08-01T01:22:36Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > They have no concept of HUMAN rights either, so it follows that animals would be just as bad off. Right. My friend knew this guy who visited China once. He woke up in a tub full of ice with a badly sutured incision above his gall bladder. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bile-bears/590506/25 "2011-08-01T15:08:57Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I assume it is exactly because it is so difficult to obtain, and so sounds impressive. Then why not bear penis or bear bacon? Anything that requires the death of the bear seems like it would be equally difficult to obtain and gall bladder doesn’t really conjure up images legendary mystical power. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bile-bears/590506/26 "2011-08-01T15:12:30Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Right. My friend knew this guy who visited China once. He woke up in a tub full of ice with a badly sutured incision above his gall bladder. Was your friend a bear? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bile-bears/590506.md?page=1)