meatless
05-03-06, 08:13 PM
http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?module=2&menupos=7&lg=en
Bear Bile Farming
Bear bile is completely replaceable by herbs and synthetics
Moon Bears have been killed for their gall bladders for 1,000s of years, but it is only in the past 20 years that countries in Asia (such as Korea, China and Vietnam) began to search for an alternative to taking an animal from the wild and killing it for the sake of a 3 ounce organ.
Bears are the only mammals to produce significant amounts of the bile acid - ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which has been used in Traditional Medicine for approximately 3,000 years. Whilst studies have shown it to be effective, today Chinese doctors agree that it can easily be replaced by herbal and synthetic alternatives which are cheaper, more effective and more readily available.
In countries across Asia, thousands of bears live a life of torture on bear farms, so that their bile can be extracted and used in Traditional Medicine to cure ailments ranging from headaches to haemorrhoids. Bears are confined in cages which vary from agonisingly tiny "crush" cages to larger pens, all of which cause terrible physical and mental suffering. But their torment does not end there.....the bears are subjected to painful methods of bile extraction which involve crude surgery to implant a steel catheter into the abdomen or the creation of a permanent hole in the abdomen known as the "free-dripping" technique. Many bears die as a result of the unsanitary surgery and those that survive spend the rest of their lives suffering in pain and deprivation. Whilst the methods of farming bears for their bile vary across Asia and are continually 'evolving', ALL of them are incredibly cruel and totally unacceptable.
Contact Animals Asia Foundation, which is working on behalf of these bears:
http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?module=1&menupos=5&lg=en
Write a letter to the editor: editor@china.org.cn
http://www.china.org.cn/english/MATERIAL/16481.htm
More info on the Vietnam bear rescue:
http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?module=2&menupos=11&lg=enn
Bear Bile Farming
Bear bile is completely replaceable by herbs and synthetics
Moon Bears have been killed for their gall bladders for 1,000s of years, but it is only in the past 20 years that countries in Asia (such as Korea, China and Vietnam) began to search for an alternative to taking an animal from the wild and killing it for the sake of a 3 ounce organ.
Bears are the only mammals to produce significant amounts of the bile acid - ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which has been used in Traditional Medicine for approximately 3,000 years. Whilst studies have shown it to be effective, today Chinese doctors agree that it can easily be replaced by herbal and synthetic alternatives which are cheaper, more effective and more readily available.
In countries across Asia, thousands of bears live a life of torture on bear farms, so that their bile can be extracted and used in Traditional Medicine to cure ailments ranging from headaches to haemorrhoids. Bears are confined in cages which vary from agonisingly tiny "crush" cages to larger pens, all of which cause terrible physical and mental suffering. But their torment does not end there.....the bears are subjected to painful methods of bile extraction which involve crude surgery to implant a steel catheter into the abdomen or the creation of a permanent hole in the abdomen known as the "free-dripping" technique. Many bears die as a result of the unsanitary surgery and those that survive spend the rest of their lives suffering in pain and deprivation. Whilst the methods of farming bears for their bile vary across Asia and are continually 'evolving', ALL of them are incredibly cruel and totally unacceptable.
Contact Animals Asia Foundation, which is working on behalf of these bears:
http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?module=1&menupos=5&lg=en
Write a letter to the editor: editor@china.org.cn
http://www.china.org.cn/english/MATERIAL/16481.htm
More info on the Vietnam bear rescue:
http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?module=2&menupos=11&lg=enn