A day in the sun for moon bears
by Lisa Owens-Viani
In a bamboo forest along the Pi River, Jill Robinson holds out a finger
dipped in honey. The sun peeks through the canopy, illuminating a rusty
cage. Tentatively, a tongue reaches through the bars. "Andrew," an
Asiatic black bear, also known as a "moon bear" for the crescent of
plush golden fur around his neck, licks the sweet substance from
Robinson's finger. It is his first taste of kindness in 20 years.
At a recent talk in San Anselmo, California, Robinson, a petite,
soft-spoken British woman, and the director of Animals Asia Foundation
(AAF), the non-profit she founded in 1998, told the story of Andrew.
Andrew now lives at the Moon Bear Rescue Center in southeastern China, a
sanctuary run by AAF. Like most moon bears, Andrew stands six feet tall
on his hind legs. But he lived most of his twenty years on a "bear
farm," lying on his belly in a three-foot-wide by three-foot-high by
six-foot-long cage. In it, he could neither change positions nor have
free access to water.
Like many of the bears AAF has rescued, Andrew was snared in the wild as
a cub. One of his legs was mangled in a trap; the farmer probably
chopped off what remained. Immediately after he was captured, Andrew was
taken to a grim concrete room filled with rows of tiny elevated iron
cages containing other moon bears. In this room he underwent an
operation in which a seven-inch catheter was inserted into his
gallbladder. Then, from beneath his cage, the bear farmers would "milk"
bile from his gallbladder twice a day in a crude and painful procedure.
In addition to being confined in tiny cages, bears are sometimes further
immobilized in metal jackets, torso-squeezing devices like corsets, or
in "crush" cages to keep them from protesting during the milking. In
addition to the hundreds of bear farms operating in China, there are
many more in North and South Vietnam and Korea.
The products of bear farms are dry bile powder and Chinese medicines
used to treat ailments like high fevers, hemorrhoids, liver problems,
and sore eyes. The amount of bile powder obtained from one bear per year
from 365 days of torture is only about two kilograms, the size of a
small bag of rice. Although bear bile has been used for thousands of
years in traditional Chinese medicine, the practice of "bear farming" is
a relatively recent phenomenon. Traditionally, moon bears and other
bears were killed for their gallbladders. But in the early 1980s,
North Korean scientists figured out a way to obtain the desirable
products of this organ without killing the animal. By taking cubs from
the wild and extracting their bile while keeping them alive, they could
produce a continual flow of liquid gold. A few years later, China began
bear farming, the government encouraging the practice in a misguided
attempt to conserve the wild population. By the early 1990s, there were
almost 500 bear farms operating in China, containing over 10,000 bears.
Meanwhile, illegal poaching of wild bears continued; today, the Chinese
government estimates that less than 15,000 moon bears remain in the wild.
In 1993, things began to look up somewhat for moon bears in China when
Robinson, who had been working there as a consultant for the
International Fund for Animal Welfare for over a decade, was taken to a
bear farm.
"I broke away from the group watching the breeding bears outside in a
pit and found some steps leading downstairs into a basement," she
recalled. "As my eyes became accustomed to the darkness, I heard some
strange 'popping' vocalizations in the background. The closer I crept to
the noises, the louder and more frantic the sounds became. I realized
then with shame that the very first lesson I would learn from this
intelligent, endangered species was the lesson of fear, and that the
presence of a human being meant only pain to these animals. Caged,
declawed, and defanged, with metal catheters in their bellies, they had
become nothing more than machines."
Robinson wandered around the dark room, numb and in shock at the
medieval scene. What happened next would change her life.
"I felt something gently touch my shoulder," she explained. "I spun
around, coming face to face with a female bear who had stretched her paw
through the bars of her cage. Probably foolishly in retrospect, I took
her offered paw. Yet, rather than pulling my arm from its socket as she
had every right to do, this powerful bear simply squeezed my fingers,
and our eyes connected."
Robinson named the bear Hong ("bear" in Cantonese), and while she never
managed to save her, that moment was the beginning of Robinson's fight
to free all farmed bears. Headquartered in Hong Kong, AAF works on many
other animal- welfare related issues in Asia, such as live animal
markets. But its main focus these days is to end bear farming in China
by 2008. Robinson says the strategy behind this goal is to call
attention to the pride and status of China during Beijing's Olympic
Games while promoting the country as the leader in ending bear farming
in Asia. AAF is making progress. In July 2000, the China Wildlife
Conservation Association and the Sichuan Forestry Department signed an
agreement with AAF to free 500 bears in Sichuan Province and to work
toward eliminating all bear farms.
That agreement was the first ever to be signed between the Chinese
government and an outside animal welfare organization. Says Robinson,
"It became clear from the outset that neither the government nor its
people could be 'bullied' into reversing a practice which had been
started with obvious good intenthowever cruel and unrealistic it was
eventually found to be. We needed to find solutionsthe hardest task of
allbut ones that proved we could work sensitively with a foreign
culture." AAF is now working with the Chinese government to close bear
farms. When a farm is closed, the government turns its license over to
AAF, and the farmers are compensated and given assistance finding new
employment. Yet Robinson has a Herculean task ahead of her. Although the
government has promised not to issue any additional licenses, 7,000
bears remain on farms. To date, AAF has been able to rescue 130 bears.
Robinson hopes they will save another 100 this year.
AAF is also working to promote the use of the less expensive synthetic
and herbal alternatives to bear bile. The active ingredient in bear bile
is ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), but synthetic UDCA is now widely used,
especially in the West, primarily to break down gallstones. (Synthetic
UDCA is also being tested in the treatment of more serious problems such
as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and possibly Alzheimer's.)
Due to the availability of synthetic UDCA, there is now a surplus of
bear bile in Asia. This means that the bile from the tortured bears ends
up in luxury items like cosmetics and wine.
Says Professor Liu Zhen Cai, one of China's most respected traditional
medicine doctors, "Today, we have over 50 herbal alternatives and
synthetic medicines that have the same efficacy as bear bile. There is
no need for bears to suffer any longer." Dr. Andy Rader, a traditional
Chinese medicine practitioner in Marin County, California, echoes Zhen
Cai's opinion. "I don't use bear bile and I don't know of anyone who
does," says Rader. "The state acupuncture associations promote ethical
and environmentally sound use of Chinese medicines."
Bears continue to arrive at the Moon Bear Rescue Center in Chengdu,
often in deplorable condition. Moon bears are intelligent, curious
creatures who need lots of mental stimulation, says Robinson. Life in
such extreme captivity has caused some of them to bang their heads or
wear down their teeth on the cage bars, even to chew at their own legs
in frustration. Some of the bears weigh less than half what a healthy
bear should weigh. At least 30 percent of the wild-caught bears are
missing a limb or two. Some have had their canine teeth sawed off or the
tips of their paws cut off, to take away their defenses and make them
easier to "milk."
But as soon as the bears arrive at the center, their lives take a turn
for the better. They are immediately given a light shower of water
through their cage bars. Often severely dehydrated, the bears lap at the
water eagerly. Rescue center employees also offer them bowls of honey,
fruit, and other sweet treats. Once the bears are rehydrated and
sedated, an ultrasound exam is performed to help the vets determine the
bears' internal injuries. Often, the animals have tumors, mutilated
gallbladders, hernias, abscesses, or equipment left behind from previous
botched surgeries. Surgery is then performed to remove their catheters
and repair their wounds. Occasionally, a bear is so badly injured it
must be euthanized.
After the bears have recovered, several weeks or even months later
depending on their injuries, they can begin to live lives free of pain
and confinement. The bears cannot be released. Many lack limbs; most
never learned the skills they need to survive in the wild, having been
captured as cubs. But at the sanctuary they can socialize with other
bears, swim in a pool, climb into a bamboo basket, swing in a hammock,
follow a fruit and honey trail, or crawl through a tunnel. They are
given nutritious, tasty food for the first time: cereal, meat protein,
veggies, fruit, and rice. They especially enjoy eating giant "Popsicles"
one-foot-square blocks of ice containing chunks of fruit and
vegetables which keep them happily occupied for over an hour at a
time. For the first time in many of their lives, they have free access
to water.
Running a bear sanctuary isn't cheap. To rescue and provide medical care
for a bear for three years costs approximately $9,600. The 27-acre site,
which can hold no more than 350 bears, will cost $3 million to complete.
By comparison, the price tag for a small exhibit being planned for the
Hong Kong Botanic Gardens to display two jaguars will be almost $1
million; the new Rain Forest exhibit at the Bronx Zoo cost $43 million.
Monthly operating costs for the rescue center are approximately $57,000,
including staffing, bear food, enrichment activities, rent (AAF has a
twenty-year lease), veterinary supplies, repairs, transport,
communications, and office costs. Funded primarily through individual
donations from throughout the world, AAF's lowest donor base is also the
wealthiest: the US. Robinson thinks this may be because many Americans
find it hard to believe that something as barbaric as bear farming is
still taking place.
Robinson won't rest until she's done her best to help the 7,000 bears
that remain on farms. AAF is exploring the possibility of acquiring more
farmland surrounding the sanctuary, which would offer space for several
hundred more rescued bears. Although the sanctuary will not officially
open to the public until 2005, small private tours are currently given,
and AAF is building an educational center. Once it is open, visitors
will learn about the plight of the bears and alternatives to bear bile.
Some of the herbal replacements are being grown on site. Meanwhile, the
rescue center has provided local benefits: jobs for about 50 people at
the center itself, as well as at new shops that have started up nearby,
and for residents of the area who grow food for the center's bears and
workers.
Robinson realizes that she probably won't be able to save every moon
bear. Some will die before ever seeing the light of day. Others are so
weak they will perish on their journey to the center. She hopes that
bears like Hong did not die in vain but will continue to inspire the
battle to save living bears. "Each bear has a story to tell," says
Robinson. "We can learn from them and use them to bring bear farming to
an end."
At Robinson's talk in San Anselmo, one audience member wondered whether
it wouldn't be "more practical and cheaper" to euthanize all of the
farmed bears. Robinson's response? "These bears have been through hell
and back. The fact that they recover so surprisingly well, have a love
of life which is obvious to see, and actually forgive the species that
has caused them so much suffering, moves all of us deeply. I believe
they have earned their day in the sun."
Lisa Owens-Viani is an environmental writer living in the San Francisco
Bay Area. She is Senior Editor of Terrain magazine, terrainmagazine.org.
Reprinted with the very kind permission of Lisa Owens-Viani
Lisa Owens-Viani is an environmental writer living in the San Francisco
Bay Area. She is Senior Editor of Terrain magazine.
*******************************************************************************
Freeing China's caged bile bears
Animal activists aim to curtail trade in traditional remedy.
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."
Reprinted with the kind permission of Teresa Castle
***********************************
Sanctuary calls for end to bear farms
BBC News On Line, June 2005
Workers remove one of the 10 black bears rescued from a bile farm by animal activists in Shenyang
A kilo of bear bile can fetch up to $1,000 in the Chinese market
*A bear sanctuary in China has called on the Chinese government to come up with a "strategic plan" to eliminate the practice of bear farming in the country.*
Around 7,000 Asiatic black bears are currently being farmed in China for their bile, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
But charity Animals Asia - founded by British woman Jill Robinson - has long campaigned for the practice to end, and in 2000 established a sanctuary for farmed bears, with government approval, in Chengdu in Sichuan Province. Now the charity has called on the government to co-ordinate a permanent end to the farms.
"If the government really came out with a strategic plan tomorrow to end bear farming, we could put an enormous amount of work and effort into this," Ms Robinson told BBC World Service's Outlook programme.
"We don't have to build sanctuaries all over the place - although it would be nice - you can at least enrich a bear's life, make a bear happy, on site.
"We could use many of these farms, where they have breeding areas, to turn these bears out into the enclosures they already have, and provide far-reaching enrichment programmes, to keep them busy and happy throughout the rest of their days."
*Ending bear farming*
The official China Wildlife Conservation Association has in the past said it will "achieve the final objective of terminating bear farming," but has admitted there are "many imperfections."
So far Animals Asia's bear sanctuary has taken in 185 bears.
They are housed in eight compounds, one of which is for disabled bears.
Bears progress from the quarantine block to forested area once they have recovered from their injuries and are able to socialise with other bears.
*I almost feel like my life began when I found the bears*
Jill Robinson
Ms Robinson founded Animals Asia in 1993 after observing the conditions in one bear farm.
She said the bears she saw "could hardly move" and were unable to do anything but put their arms through the bars of their cages.
"I knew nothing about the practice of bear farming," she added.
"As I was walking around this horrible basement and looking at this catalogue of injuries to these animals, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there was a female bear with her paw stretched thorough the bars of the cage... I took her paw, and instead ripping my arm from my shoulders, she squeezed it rhythmically.
"It was something that I've never forgotten, and really set me on a path towards ending bear farming in China."
Ms Robinson, who described herself as a "frustrated non-vet," had been involved in animal welfare since leaving school.
Initially she began trying to help the bears by building relationships and negotiating with government departments. But in 2000, the Chinese authorities agreed to the establishment of the Chengdu sanctuary.
"We were incredibly lucky," she added.
A philanthropist friend, based in Hong Kong, gave her the money to begin the s anctuaryproperly.
"He invited me to come along for breakfast, and within half an hour of meeting him, he said 'I pledge you your first million dollars.'
"I nearly fell off my chair. I'd never been offered anything like that before."
*Funding*
This money gave Robinson enough funds for the first two years of the sanctuary.
It has expanding dramatically since then and now employs 70 local workers.
One is Wu Guo Jen, a former local furniture maker, who told Outlook he was "was so impressed I decided to quit my job and start here".
Moon-crested bear in a cage at a bear farm
The bears often arrive having suffered horrific injuries
However, the centre needs big funds just to keep going.
With wages, veterinary costs, feed and bear care, the monthly cost of the sanctuary exceeds $60,000; each individual enclosure for 48 bears needs $200,000 to build.
And every bear needs surgery to remove the steel or plastic tubes that had been inserted to remove the bile, meaning they all need at least one operation.
Meanwhile Ms Robinson has pledged to spend the rest of her life looking after the bears.
"I couldn't think of a nicer place to end my days," she added.
"I almost feel like my life began when I found the bears. We grow as a foundation and I grow as a person."
_______________________________________________________________________
ANIMAL WELFARE INTERGROUP MEPS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO END BEAR BILE FARMING BY THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS
On Thursday October 13th 2005 Animals Asia were invited to attend a press conference at the European Parliament in Brussels to launch the start of a campaign by the Members of the European Parliament (MEP's) calling upon the Chinese government to end bear farming in China.
The campaign began with the launch of a written declaration circulated amongst the 732 MEPs from all 25 EU states. The declaration calls:
1. On the Chinese Government to consider this grave worldwide concern as the 2008 Beijing Olympics approach, taking a clear stance on bear farming, initiating a countrywide ban forthwith on the breeding of bears on farms and setting a time-limit for the ending of bear farming;
2. Requests that the Chinese Government liaise with AAF in accelerating the closure of all bear farms through programmes benefiting bears currently held captive and farmers reliant on the industry; calls also for co-operation with the AAF in developing far-reaching education programmes to deter consumers of bear bile;
3. Instructs the European President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council, the Commission, the Member States and the relevant Chinese authorities.
The MEPs that put forward this declaration invited us to join them at their press conference. MEPs Paulo Casaca, Terence Wynn, Jean Lambert, Peter Skinner and Neil Parish urged the Chinese government to escalate efforts to end Bear bile farming by the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Paul Casaca, President of the Animal Welfare Intergroup, said "We urge the Chinese government at every level to abolish once and for all this barbaric practice and stop with immediate effect the breeding of bears for bile farming. We will do everything in our power to support the Chinese government in their efforts."
The MEPs welcomed the positive efforts made so far by the Chinese Government in closing over 40 bear farms and helping the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) free 194 bears. However, thousands more remain in senseless and cruel captivity.
The MEPs were joined in their call by British Olympic cycling champion Fiona Oakes, a gold medallist in Barcelona.
Fiona Oakes said ""In 2008 athletes will gather in China to realize their dreams, thousands of spectators from across the world will join them in China or will listen and watch through wireless, television and the internet. When the world sees images of these suffering bears I am sure they will be as horrified and sickened as I am."
Jill Robinson MBE, applauded the MEPs encouragement for the Chinese Government to work more intensely with Animals Asia towards ending bear farming once and for all.
She added "The Beijing Olympic Games will be an historic event. As the eyes of the world will be looking to China in 2008 it would be a responsible, ethical and momentous declaration if the Government ended the barbaric and unnecessary practice of bear farming by that date."
Jill left nobody in any doubt why this barbaric practice must end, whilst the MEPs sponsoring the declaration left us in no doubt that we had their 100% backing and support for ending bear farming.
This is a fantastic step to take to put further international pressure on the Chinese authorities to close down the farms once and for all.
You can do your bit by writing to your local MEPs and requesting they please sign the EU declaration on 'rising international concern over the farming of bear bile in China' issued by MEPs - David Martin, Paulo Casaca, Peter Skinner, Terence Wynn and Robert Evans on 26th September 2005.
To find the name and address of your local MEPs please click on the link below:
Thank You and Best Wishes,
--
Dave Neale
UK Director
Animals Asia Foundation
What you can do: For more information on the China Bear Rescue, see
