Singapore study sparks concern over bear farming

[Guest guest]

SINGAPORE: December 10, 2001

 

 

SINGAPORE - A study in Singapore has raised fresh concerns among animal

rights supporters over the wide availability of banned products that are

extracted from bears in a practice labelled as cruel.

 

The study's authors say Singapore has banned the sale of gall bladder and

bile medicines extracted from bears, remedies used by Chinese for thousands

of years for stomach and liver ailments.

But the three-month study by the London-based World Society for the

Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the Singapore-based Animal Concerns

Research and Education Society (ACRES) found that nearly three-quarters of

68 Chinese medicine shops surveyed in Singapore sold the products.

 

" Where there is some Asian community, at least a Chinese community, there is

a demand for these products, " WSPA director Victor Watkins told Reuters in

an interview.

 

China began bear farming in the 1980s. The sale of bear products is legal in

within China, but exports are banned.

 

A WSPA study in 2000 of 7,000 captive black bears in several Chinese

provinces found many were crammed into tiny cages and were being " milked "

for their bile through holes cut in their abdomens.

 

Once the bears stopped producing bile they were killed for their gall

bladders.

 

" Killing of farming bears is inhumane. The illegal trade continues because

of us, consumers, " Paige Lee, ACRES spokeswoman said.

 

Animal rights activists have been up in arms over the squalid and cruel

conditions that many bears are kept in so that their bile can be extracted.

 

Film aired on China Central Television (CCTV) on Monday showed bears in

small cages with surgically implanted tubes and valves for the collection of

bile.

 

Some bears had their teeth and claws filed down so they would not hurt their

handlers, the television programme showed.

 

The products in Singapore were usually in the form of bear bile pills and

whole dried bear gall bladders, which can fetch several hundred dollars.

Bile powder, crystals, ointments and bear claws were also for sale on

request.

 

" This is an illegal trade and Singapore has got strict penalties on illegal

trade in substances. The government has to take very swift action, " Watkins

said.

 

The relevant authorities were not immediately for comment.

 

Studies have shown than one of the active ingredients in the bile,

ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), has medicinal effects.

 

" There is some truth in it, " Watkins said, adding many synthetic UDCA and

botanical alternatives were now available.

 

The bulk of the bear products come from China but Indonesia, Malaysia, India

and Vietnam are also suppliers, the latest study said.

 

Bear products are widely known to be sold in Asia, Europe and North America,

but trade in body parts of the Asian species of bears is banned under global

conservation regulations.

 

About 500 kg (1,100 pounds) of bile was produced yearly from the killing of

wild bears in China before the advent of farming. Bile output jumped to

7,000 kg in 2001 with farm-bred bears and bears caught from the wild.

 

China uses at most 4,000 kg of bile per year and the excess is smuggled out,

Watkins said. Enterprising farmers were creating new bile-based products

such as wine and shampoos.

 

" They're increasing the demand for it via their marketing techniques, " he

said.

 

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources

estimates there are some 20,000 wild Asiatic black bears left in China and

has classified them as a vulnerable species.

 

" Their habitat is being destroyed. They're still being hunted for their body

parts in China and if they're also being hunted for young bears to put into

bear farms, that puts a strain on the wild population, " Watkins said.

 

The WSPA is lobbying the Chinese government to stop the export of the

products and plans to set up a travelling exhibit of a life-sized mechanical

bear being milked in a cage.

 

" We'd like to see more public awareness of the cruelty and conservation

problems of using bear products, " Watkins said.

 

 

 

Story by Amy Tan