(No subject)

[Guest guest]

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20020305wo72.htm

 

Animal welfare groups seek end to importation of bear

bile

 

Yomiuri Shimbun, 05 March 2002

 

The illegal importation of bear products used in

traditional Chinese medicine should be stopped, an

international animal welfare group has urged the

Japanese government.

 

" Chinese bear farms admitted their illegal export of

bear bile products, " said Victor Watkins of the

London-based group, World Society for the Protection

of Animals (WSPA), which has carried out undercover

investigations on major bear farms in China. Watkins

said at a press conference in Tokyo last week that it

was not a conflict between " animal welfare and Chinese

tradition " but a matter of " illegal trade of

endangered species. "

 

Watkins said such bear bile products are illegally

exported to such countries as Japan, South Korea and

Singapore.

 

International trade of Asiatic black bears bred by

such farms is prohibited by the Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild

Fauna and Flora.

 

Bear bile is believed to be effective in treating

gallbladder infections, and in Japan, a gram of

powdered or crystallized bear bile is sold for

thousands of yen.

 

According to Watkins, the Chinese government confirmed

that about 7,000 kilograms of bear bile is annually

produced on bear farms, while the annual domestic

demand for bear bile in China is about 4,000

kilograms.

 

The Chinese government, however, has not commented on

what happens to the extra 3,000 kilograms of bear

bile, Watkins said. He suggested that the extra bile

may be exported to other countries.

 

Meanwhile, Tokyo-based Japan Wildlife Conservation

Society (JWCS), which also participated in the

conference, has carried out its own undercover

investigation on 124 drugstores that sell traditional

Chinese medicines in Japan. Of them, 14 stores sell

products that contain bear bile produced by Chinese

bear farms, according to JWCS Secretary General

Masayuki Sakamoto.

 

According to WSPA, bears at the farms are kept in

cages measuring one meter wide, one meter high and two

meters long, and have tubes inserted into their

gallbladders so that bile can be extracted twice a

day.

 

Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Try FREE Mail - the world's greatest free email!

/