Bears of the Moon: the terrible situation of the bears captured for their precious bile that will be used to make medicines, ointments, drinks and shampoos.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himBears in China. Captured with traps that often cause terrible mutilation. Immobilized in cages as large as their bodies, deforming their bones and atrophying their limbs, with a rusty catheter stuck into the gallbladder to extract the bile twice a day which will be used to make medicines, ointments, soft drinks and shampoos. They literally can't get up, move, turn around.
They will remain in these conditions also for 20, 30 years, that is the whole duration of their life, up to death, caused by infections, psychic suffering, bone malformations from malnutrition. It is the sad fate of the Asiatic black bears, better known as Moon Bears, because they are adorned with a stupendous white half moon near the chest on the dark fur, incarcerated in infernal Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean farms, tortured every day by the hundreds for the extraction of their precious bile, a traditional element of traditional Asian medicine, which prescribes a healing purposes for 3.000 years.
Index
The ordeal of the moon bears
La bear bile in fact, it contains an active ingredient known as ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), whose ingestion is attributed to a reduction in fever and inflammation, a protective effect on the liver, improvements in vision and elimination of gallstones. But when in the 70s, the so-called "moon" bears became a protected species because they were on the verge of extinction, prohibiting their hunting in the great forests of the Asian continent, they devised the creation of "farms" in which to "milk them", avoiding their extermination and also obtaining an infinitely higher production of bile. This is how the terrible ordeal of the moon bears begins.
The investigations
But there are those who oppose all this, like i three documentarians independent, Elsa Xiong, Tu Qiao e Chen Yuanzhong, who presented a video document, made undercover between 2009 and 2010, the fruit of a long investigation that lasted four years. The document shows the bears forced to wear the so-called metal jacket, a tremendous instrument of torture that multiplies the suffering that these animals have to endure.
It is a kind of harness designed to compress the abdomen of the animal, which has metal hooks that stick into the neck in order to prevent any movement of the head and metal strings to limit the movement of the limbs. Equipped with a permanent catheter that pours the bile into a bag housed under the harness, to make extraction easier, the metal jacket is comparable to the most terrible medieval instruments of torture.
In the center of the viewfinder, theGuizhentang pharmaceutical company, the first to produce bear bile, with approx 500 animals in breeding che daily suffer torture. The company, which even aims to increase the number of animals held, has decided to defend itself against the accusations by allowing Chinese journalists to access its farms.
But the reporters, who were unable to do interviews, were presented with only the specimens in the best conditions during the quick tour. Because Guizhentang continues to argue that the process is painless, as is theChinese Association of Traditional Medicine, in the figure of spokesman Fang Shuting, who explained: "the method of extracting bile is as simple, natural and painless as opening a tap".
The commitment of the Animals Asia Foundation
Fortunately, it seems that the general sensitivity of Asian citizens is changing and the protests and initiatives of those who oppose the horrible scandal of "bile bear farms ". The merit of the widespread diffusion of the concept of protection of these animals certainly goes to Jill Robinson, a pugnacious and brave English lady who is dedicating her life to the Moon Bears, with the organization Animals Asia Foundation.
It all began in 1983 when he entered a bile farm in China, a veritable "torture chamber, hell for animals", says Jill in an audio recording made live. After a short time Jill found that bile could be easily replaced with cheaper herbs and synthetic products and he began his work in China relentlessly, establishing relationships and negotiating with government departments, very resolutely, in order to put an end to this cruel practice.
The hard work carried out by the Foundation was rewarded in July 2.000, with the signing of one historic agreement of the Chinese authorities for the rescue of 500 Moon Bears from Sichuan Province, which envisaged the elimination of bile farms throughout China in the future, as well as the promotion of herbal and synthetic alternatives to bear bile.
From that year onwards, the rescues have continued, and one of them was even told in a short film, which chronicles the incredible and titanic undertaking to free one hundred bears from the former bile farm in Nanning, China.
The bears continue to arrive in the most desperate and shocking conditions, with brittle bones, desperately sick and frightened. Their rehabilitation takes several months and unfortunately they can no longer be released into the wilderness: they are defenseless, mutilated, raised without the necessary defenses to survive in the wild. But with lots of loving care and continued veterinary supervision, the vast majority of them recover.
Follow us on Telegram | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Youtube
Read the news about the latest moon bear rescues here:
- Biggest Moon Bears Rescue: After years of torture on the 'bile farm' comes freedom
- Rescued 2 moon bears imprisoned for 17 years in the dark on a bile farm
