(CN) China's black bears find sanctuary

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Monday, 16 December, 2002, 17:50 GMT

BBC News

Photos at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2580581.stm

 

The centre will initially house 84 black bears

 

A conservation centre, seen as an important move in the campaign to stop

bear-bile farming, has officially opened in China on Monday.

It is the biggest sanctuary for Asiatic bears in the country where the

bear-bile farming for medical purposes is a flourishing industry.

 

The centre will initially house 84 black bears, all rescued from bear farms,

but it is big enough for 100 animals.

 

The lucrative but illegal export trade in bear products coming from farms in

China is threatening the existence of some species of the animal.

 

The $3m sanctuary has been built near the city of Chengdu, capital of the

Sichuan province.

 

It has a hospital for injured bears and an 11-hectare bamboo forest area for

them to roam.

 

Most of the animals have been outdoors for the first time in their lives.

 

Lucrative trade

 

The number of bears held for their bile in China has risen by 28% in the

past three years, the London-based World Society for the Protection of

Animals said.

 

The organisation claims that a record 9,000 bears are held in the farms,

where their bile is extracted through surgically inserted catheters.

 

The number is denied by Chinese officials.

 

Bear bile plays an important role in traditional Chinese medicine, used to

treat diseases of eye, liver and other organs.

 

A kilogram of bear bile can fetch up to $1,000 in the Chinese medicine

market.

 

Three of the recently received batch of 17 bears had to be put down because

of painful and untreatable injuries due to their treatment by bile farmers.

 

" Their condition was beyond belief, " said Jill Robinson, chief executive of

Animals Asia Foundation, one of the initiators of a program to rescue bears

in China. " It is our opinion that all bear-farming is an unnecessary and

inhumane

practice. "

 

Animal rights activists say bears are being kept by the bile-farmers in

cages so small the animals cannot turn around.

 

Chinese authorities say over the last three years the number of officially

registered bear farms has fallen from 247 to 167.

 

" We will achieve the final objective of terminating bear farming in China, "

Chen Rensheng, secretary general of the official China Wildlife Conservation

Association said.

 

However, Mr Chen admitted that " there are many imperfections " .

 

Breeding bears is still allowed and there are suggestions that farmers are

supplying a thriving export trade.

 

The Asiatic black bear is the number two priority on China's list of

endangered animals, after the panda.