(CN) Bear Farming

[Guest guest]

BEIJING OFFICIALS INVITE HONG KONG GROUP TO ACCELERATE THE END OF BEAR

FARMING

 

Further to this week's exposure of a cruel bear bile farm in China's

Yunnan Province, a delegation from the Animals Asia Foundation met

yesterday with the government authorities in Beijing.

 

Animals Asia Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson MBE and Project Director,

Boris Chiao, met with Mr. Huang Jian Hua, from the government China

Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) department in Beijing, where

they discussed the shocking undercover bear farm footage, recently

filmed by mainland journalists and aired on China Central Television.

 

Mr. Huang advised that, during the coming year, it was the intention of

his department to " speed up " the Agreement between the China Wildlife

Conservation Association, the Sichuan Forestry Department and the

Animals Asia Foundation and work towards ending bear farming once and

for all. The breakthrough Agreement signed in July 2000, and approved by the

Central Government, pledged to rescue 500 farmed and endangered

Moon bears and promised that all parties would work together towards the

total elimination of bear farming in China.

 

Mr. Huang stated that major progress has since been made, resulting in

the closure of 30 farms and the rescue of over sixty bears, now

recovering at the Animals Asia Rescue Centre in Chengdu. All of the

bears have undergone extensive surgery to remove 5 to 7 inch metal

catheter implants from their abdomens and are now experiencing freedom

and tender care for the first time. No more licenses are being issued

to farm bears and, once the farms close down, the farmers are given a

financial incentive to enter alternative employment.

 

During the meeting yesterday, Mr. Huang Jian Hua invited the team of

Animals Asia to work with government authorities in devising ways of

hastening the July 2000 Agreement and to help them in formulating a plan

which will help over 6,000 bears remaining on farms in the quickest time

frame possible.

 

He told Robinson and Chiao that the cooperation between the Chinese

authorities and Animals Asia had already seen a series of positive

measures focusing on the wildlife trade, and that these joint efforts

had helped to improve the situation for both wild and protected animals

in China.

 

Ms Robinson said that whilst this was a positive step forward, this

recent story emphasised the desperate need for ending the bear farming

industry in China. " The bears recovering at our rescue centre in

Chengdu are the lucky ones, but serve as a reminder to us all that there

is a great deal of work to do before this unconscionable practice ends

once and for all. "

 

Note: The Hong Kong based Animals Asia Foundation, with local offices in

China, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom and New Zealand, is working within

China to rescue 500 endangered Moon Bears from bile farms. See the historic

" China Bear Rescue " at:

www.animalsasia.org