Excruciating Pain to Bear
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After being caged in poor conditions for prolonged periods of time and extracted for bile, a large number of bears in Vietnam are languishing in debilitating illness.
The existing number of bears in Vietnam, most kept in cages, is estimated to be fewer than 400 at the moment.
Some bears kept on private farms for commercial purposes even had their two forelegs cut off, which can result in their blindness or inflammation of the gall bladder. Some even are sold abroad.
Often caged and regularly subjected to a variety of other cruel procedures, they have to undergo crude surgeries to remove bile from their gall bladders every three months or so, surgeries that can leave agonizing, infected wounds on them, often leading to death after 3 or 4 such operations.
Others have their gall bladders punctured with long needles to siphon off the bile via a pump into a glass bottle. Continuous puncturing of the gall bladder often leads to bile leakage and a slow and painful death from peritonitis.
Animals Asia Foundation won Vietnamese government approval to set up the Bear Rescue Center in Tam Dao National Park near Hanoi in 2007 to nurture, rehabilitate and maintain wild animals threatened with extinction in Vietnam.
The center is now caring and curing 69 bears -- 64 gau ngua (the moon bear or Asiatic black bear) and 5gau cho (Helarctos malayanus). Of the 69 bears, 36 are recovering and are being monitored in semi-wildlife areas. The center is capable of raising the number of bears in its care up to 200 in a near future.
Early this month, a shocking clip was posted on Youtube, featuring hundreds of Korean tourists visiting bile bear farms in the northern Quang Ninh province to witness bile-extracting procedures and buy tiny packs of the fluid.
In the clip, Korean and other Asian tourists were led to a room where a Korean manager was giving a briefing on bear bile.
An anaesthetized bear was then pulled out of its cage and taken into the room. After the visitors gathered around, the bear was turned upside down.
A farm worker used an ultrasound machine to locate the gall bladder in the bear’s abdomen.
Then he inserted a long stainless steel needle into the bear's abdomen, using the ultrasound to guide the needle to the gall bladder.
The workers extracted a jar of bile and poured it into small packs, each costing US$30.
The film clip was shot last October and broadcast on the Korean television channel.
According to the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), some 3,600 bears are held captive in horrific conditions in farms across Vietnam.
Their bile is used to treat fever and inflammation, protect the liver, improve eyesight, and destroy gallstones.
The bile is extracted regularly from bears’ gall bladder, causing extreme pain to the animals.
BEAR FACTS Black bears can be brown They can hear and smell far better than humans Adult males weigh more than 135 kg (300 lbs) May hibernate up to seven months when food is scarce |
Here is a series of photos of a gall surgery on a three-year-old bear:
After anesthesia injection, the 3-year-old bear is weighed and then sent to surgery room
An oxygen breather is put into his body. He is anaesthetized on the operating table
Cardiovascular test
A vet shaves the bear’s belly-hair to scan his belly and gall bladder. He is diagnosed as suffering from gall bladder stones
A surgery is performed to remove stones from the bear’s bladder
In post-surgery period, bear is kept in a private place to be monitored before released back to feeding area
After recovering from trauma, he is nurtured and cared for in semi-wildlife area
Vietnam Bear Rescue Center in Tam Dao National Park
