Front page story in the Chronicle about Moon Bears

[Guest guest]

The fundraiser in Berkeley next weekend benefits this group. Check

the Bay area veg schedule for details!

Alicia

 

> Front page story in San Francisco Chronicle, Monday

25/4/05

>

> Dear Friends of Animals Asia,

>

> Exciting news! Here is a front page story in the Monday, April 25,

San

> Francisco Chronicle headed, " Freeing China's caged bile bears

Animal

> activists aim to curtail trade in traditional remedy. "

>

> The newspaper has also printed images, such as the one of a bear

that

> arrived at our Rescue Centre in January 2005 - stuffed into a

metal

cage,

> the size of her body, which you can view on line at:

>

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?

f=/c/a/2005/04/25/MNGFECEIVO1.DTL & o=0

> OR http://tinyurl.com/7e9ld

>

> Best wishes,

> Annie

> Annie Mather

> Executive Director, Head of Media

> Animals Asia Foundation

> Hong Kong

>

> ANIMALS ASIA HAS A BRAND NEW WEBSITE!

> Find out more about the " China Bear Rescue " and " Friends....or

Food? "

> http://www.animalsasia.org

>

>

>

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?

file=/c/a/2005/04/25/BEARBILE.TMP

>

> Freeing China's caged bile bears

> Animal activists aim to curtail trade in traditional remedy

>

> Kathleen E. McLaughlin, Chronicle Foreign Service

>

> Monday, April 25, 2005

>

> Chengdu, China -- Jill Robinson's life was forever changed when

she

stole

> away from her tour group on a Chinese bear bile farm and descended

a

> flight of stairs to a dark basement, where she saw the dim

outlines

of

> cages.

>

> " I actually didn't understand what I was seeing at first, "

Robinson

says.

> " Then it made me sick to my stomach. "

>

> Dozens of bears, kept alive only for their bile, were trapped in

cages so

> small they couldn't move, their bellies spiked with crude, dirty,

> often-infected devices to allow the farmers to " milk " their bile

twice a

> day and sell the fluid secreted by the liver as medicine.

>

> Suddenly, one of the bears reached a paw out of its cage. Unaware

that

> moon bears, an endangered Asian black bear species named for the

yellow

> crescent on its chest, are among the most aggressive of bears,

Robinson

> spontaneously grabbed the animal's paw and held it. She marvels

that

she

> still has her arm.

>

> " In years later, it has shaken me and made me really believe there

was a

> message there, " she says.

>

> Now the soft-spoken Briton, who went on to found Animals Asia

Foundation,

> based in Hong Kong, is pressing the Chinese government to ban bear

farming

> outright before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and close down the

farms

> where, according to the World Society for the Protection of

Animals,

7,000

> caged bears are being milked for their bile.

>

> It is not an easy battle to win. Bear bile has been used in Chinese

> medicine for centuries to treat a variety of ailments, from

inflammation

> and heart disease to impotence, Parkinson's disease and liver

ailments.

>

> Still, Robinson has had some success in her crusade to save the

captive

> bears.

>

> A Moon Bear Rescue center she started in Chengdu, Sichuan

province,

has

> grown steadily, particularly since the foundation signed an

agreement

with

> local government officials to help shut down the worst of China's

bear

> farms. So far, she has saved 185 bears.

>

> The animals arrive at the 25-acre refuge, after being purchased

from

> farmers for a price Robinson will not disclose, in crude devices

such

as

> " crush cages " with brackets used to force the bear's body down so

it

> cannot move while its bile is being extracted. Full metal jackets,

> encasing a bear's entire torso, prevent it from ripping out the

painful

> tube in its gall bladder, the organ in which bile from the liver is

> stored.

>

> The rescued bears carry their own peculiar scars. Truncated paws,

where

> farmers have cut off entire toes rather than declawing the bears.

Missing

> and broken teeth from chewing on the metal bars of their cages.

Patchy

> hair from malnutrition. Head wounds from " cage rage " -- repeatedly

banging

> their heads on the metal bars of their tiny cells.

>

> Veterinary surgeon Dr. Kati Loeffler tries to save the damaged

bears.

In

> one recent surgery, she operated on a bear named Minnie who

carried a

> crude catheter wired into place, buried under two pounds of scar

tissue.

>

> " This can never be a humane industry, " Robinson says.

>

> The central government did not respond to requests for comment, but

> recently Beijing has allowed state-run media to carry a number of

> high-profile television and newspaper reports exposing cruel

practices on

> the farms, an indication that forces in Beijing are beginning to

lean

> against the practice.

>

> In February, Vietnam signed an agreement with the society to phase

out its

> bile farms, where an estimated 3,000 bears are held, a move that

could put

> pressure on China and Korea to close bear farms on their soil.

>

> Meanwhile, however, the steady stream of bile from farms is

creating

a

> burgeoning market for the product, not only in Asia but around the

world,

> experts say.

>

> A 2000 report by the society found bear gall bladders and bear bile

> medicines for sale in several U.S. cities, including in San

Francisco's

> Chinatown, even though sale of the product is illegal in

California.

>

> The farms now produce an estimated 141,000 ounces of bear bile

each

year,

> outstripping even the growing consumer demand. In response, drug

companies

> have started using excess bile in alternative products like

shampoo,

wine

> and health teas.

>

> " We've reached the state now where we are incredibly frustrated

with

the

> inaction, " Robinson says. " We are appealing, just begging the

government

> to do something about this. "

>

> The farms have few outspoken advocates, but among them is Dr. Fan

Zhiyong,

> head the fauna division of China's office of the Convention on

> International Trade in Endangered Species, better known as CITES.

Last

> year, Fan called for new rules to allow China to export bear-bile

> products.

>

> " China has a large market demand for bear bile, " Fan wrote in a

widely

> distributed paper in 2003. " If it were not satisfied with bile

powder

from

> bear farms, this demand would attract poachers to kill wild bears,

which

> would really endanger the survival of bears in China, and even of

bears in

> other countries. "

>

> Indeed, China's bear farms sprang up after China outlawed the

killing

of

> native bears -- all listed as endangered species -- in the 1980s.

>

> However, bear farm opponents argue that synthetic bear bile --

> ursodeoxycholic acid, or UDCA -- is cheaper and just as effective.

> Professor Liu Cheng Cai, a medical instructor at Chengdu Military

> Hospital, one of China's top traditional medicine centers, says

herbs

and

> other medications negate the need for the animals' bile.

>

> At one major pharmacy in Beijing, bear bile powder -- golden flecks

> packaged in small glass vials -- sells for nearly $100 for two

grams.

In a

> sign that the campaign to substitute herbal remedies for bear bile

may be

> gaining ground, the pharmacist said it works especially well on

liver

> diseases but is not very popular these days because of the

availability of

> cheaper alternatives.

>

> Meanwhile, word of Robinson's crusade is spreading. Visitors to the

> organization's Web site, www.animalsasia.org, are signing up to

support

> the sanctuary with donations ranging from $5 for a pot of honey to

$3,500

> for a bear den. Superstar Hong Kong actress and singer Karen Mok

has

> signed on as spokeswoman for the foundation, and crocodile hunter

Steve

> Irwin filmed a segment in February on veterinary surgery at the

sanctuary.

>

> Although rescued bears cannot be released to the wild, having long

since

> lost their survival skills, they are freer at the sanctuary than

they

have

> been in years.

>

> At the center, which costs $80,000 a month to operate, more than

100

roam

> between indoor stalls and outdoor play areas, hanging in basket

beds

and

> climbing on timber toys.

>

> New arrivals await surgery to remove catheters and repair wounds,

pacing

> about in cages substantially larger than the ones they had been

confined

> in, getting used to being able to move around. They work on simple

puzzles

> -- such as finding fruit hidden in small logs -- to challenge

brains

and

> muscles atrophied by years of confinement.

>

> Some of the animals, ranging in size from the stunted 50-pound

Franzi

to

> the 7-foot-tall, 300-plus pound male named Emma, even eat fruit

from

> workers' hands.

>

> " When you think they were consistently enduring all those pain

sensations

> all their lives ... " says Robinson, her voice trailing off. " We

wouldn't

> be so forgiving as a species. "

>