Animal rights group protests Bejing's Olympic bid

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Animal rights group protests Bejing's Olympic bid

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AUSTRALIA: May 9, 2001

 

 

SYDNEY - An international animal rights group yesterday launched a campaign

to derail Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympics because of China's animal

welfare record, in particular the farming of bears for their bile.

 

 

The London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) said in

a statement issued in Sydney the organisation wanted the International

Olympic Committee (IOC) to drop China from its list of candidates for the

games.

" If the Olympic Games represent the highest and greatest manifestation of

the human spirit, China's bear farms represent the greatest expression of

man's ability to cause suffering to another living being, " said Georgia

Stephenson, regional manager for WSPA Australia.

 

WSPA is an umbrella group for various international animal rights

organisations.

 

The group said thousands of bears were kept in horrific conditions

throughout China, producing 7,000 kg (15,400 lb) of bear bile a year.

 

The bears are surgically mutilated, and bile is then tapped through a tube

or needle. The bile is used in traditional remedies.

 

Some bears remain alive for several years of milking and some chew their

paws to cope with the pain, WSPA said.

 

The organisation launched an Internet site as part of its protests against

China's Olympics bid. The website will redirect e-mails from protesters to

IOC vice president Kevin Gosper, Australia's delegate to the Olympic

committee.

 

Michael Kennedy of the Sydney office of the Humane Society International

said his organisation was not joining WSPA's protest, but it shared its

concern over animal welfare in China.

 

" China is, along with many countries in Asia, a growing consumer of

wildlife, dead, alive and in parts, " Kennedy said.

 

The other cities competing to host the 2008 Olympics are Osaka, Paris,

Toronto and Istanbul.

 

Some human rights groups have also urged the IOC not to award the Games to

Beijing because of China's rights record.

 

 

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

 

 

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