Bear bile farming: one of the world’s most extreme forms of animal abuse
Image credit: World Animal Protection / Tim Gerard Barker
Bears are one of the most intelligent animals in the world. They can count, use tools, solve problems and communicate with a range of vocalisations and complex facial expressions. However, these sentient mammals are being held in captivity for their ‘bile’ which is a fluid secreted by the liver and is highly valued in traditional Asian medicine.
Bear bile farming is one of the cruellest abuses of animals in the world and is of dubious medicinal value. Their bile is extracted in intolerably inhumane ways, often by people with no veterinary qualifications causing the bears extreme distress and pain. The helpless animals moan and rock due to extreme anxiety, and many of them have broken teeth from biting on the bars of their cages.
Today, not only is their bile a component of traditional Asian medicine but is used in everyday luxury products such as wine, face masks, soda, and tonics – driving up the demand. Making bears suffer in such a horrific and terrifying way is indefensible as there are non-animal alternatives readily available.
In 2005, the Government of Vietnam outlawed bear bile farming. At that time 4,300 bears were held on farms. All had to be microchipped and registered, to prevent new bears entering the farms, and it became illegal to extract their bile. However, it is still legal to keep bears on farms and illegal bear bile production continues behind closed doors.
Since 2006, in collaboration with authorities and our local partner, Education for Nature (ENV), World Animal Protection has been providing equipment and training for microchipping bears in Vietnam, introducing new cutting-edge microchipping technology in 2015, and working on an extensive monitoring programme of farms, which continues to this day.
Thanks to this monitoring, bears that are identified without a microchip and/or registration papers, deeming them illegal, are confiscated. They are then moved by authorities to government rescue centres or by Four Paws and Free the Bears to one of their sanctuaries. World Animal Protection, working with authorities and ENV, continues to play a key role identifying and confiscating illegal bears or convincing bear owners to voluntarily surrender their bears.
It is with your support that the bear bile industry in South Korea has been ground to a halt today, making it the last generation of bears to suffer there. The monitoring programme has been integral in moving Vietnam to end bear bile farming, and today there are more bears in sanctuaries and rescue centres than on farms. Our aim is to ensure the Vietnam government closes all bear farms and transfers any remaining bears to sanctuaries and rescues centres by 2025, so that no more bears suffer in captivity.
Together, we will continue to take on exploitative industries until the last cage is empty.