Monday, March 5, 2007
Yea, we all heard it before.. but here's an extract on why you shouldn't.Bear bile has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for over 3000 years. It used to aid ailments ranging from fevers to heart disease.
In the 1980s the bear farming industry was set up to farm bears more intensively. Over 7000 bears were found being kept in Chinese bear farms; additional animals were held in Korea and Vietnam .
Originally, bear farming was introduced to reduce the number of bears poached from the wild. However, it is actually feared that bear farming is causing a decline in wild populations in China and across Asia , as the bear farming industry stimulates demand.
Welfare issues
Bears suffer when they are removed from their natural environment. They are often kept in cages that provide insufficient space to allow them to turn around, sit up or even lie down properly.
The extraction of bile is an extremely painful procedure, often carried out by untrained technicians. This causes immense and prolonged suffering to the bears.
Some bears are reported to curl up after the extraction, shivering and holding their paws to their stomach. There are numerous reports of bears twitching, gnashing their teeth, biting bars and uttering distress calls during the extraction process.
Methods of bile extraction
According to the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), there are a number of methods used to extract bile from bears. They differ between each country (China, Korea, Vietnam) and even within each country.
China
Catheters: This technique involves the insertion of a stainless steel or latex catheter into the bear‘s gall bladder (like ouch). Originally employed in the mid-1980s, when commercial bear farming in China started, this technique is still widely used despite it now being illegal.
The catheter is inserted through a hole, cut in the bear‘s abdomen, and attached to the gall bladder. The outer end is left to protrude from the bear‘s abdomen by several centimetres.
A variation of this technique involves the end of the catheter being fitted to a detachable plastic bag. The bag is held in place in front of the bear‘s abdomen by a permanent metal harness.
Fistulae or ‘Free Dripping Technique‘: In 1993 the Chinese authorities began to promote the use of new surgical techniques for bile extraction and the abolition of iron corsets. A new catheter-free technique was to replace the old method.
The new technique was reportedly introduced because of high mortality rates associated with the old method. Today it is the only legal method of bile extraction in China . The older methods, however, are still commonly used in bear farms across the country.
The ‘free dripping technique‘ involves the creation of a tissue duct between the gall bladder and the abdominal wall, using parts of the bear‘s inner body lining, known as the mesentery.
Bile is collected by inserting a rod through the fistula towards the gall bladder, which then drains its content. To prevent the fistula from closing up the wound must be constantly re-opened - usually once or twice a day (imagine it if i cut you, then cut you at the same place again and again).
It is suggested that this new technique is in some way more humane than older methods. However, this is far from the case, as we can see from the suffering involved for bears following surgery and years of bile extraction.
Recent Update: New reports from the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) suggest that farmers are now employing a ‘fake‘ free dripping technique.
Here a clear plastic tube is inserted into the fistula, hidden just inside the body cavity. The tube is virtually invisible even on close inspection.
It is believed the plastic tube makes bile extraction easier and more efficient. Despite the process being illegal under current government regulations, it is believed to be common practice in many bear farms across China.
Vietnam
Hypodermic Syringe: The most common method of bile extraction in Vietnam involves the use of ultrasound equipment to locate the gall bladder.
Once located a long syringe is inserted into the bear‘s abdomen to puncture the gall bladder. The bile is then siphoned off into a collecting jar. Repeated puncturing of the gall bladder can lead to infection with many bears dying of peritonitis.
Surgery: In some cases, bears in Vietnam are subjected to crude surgery in which the gall bladder is accessed and bile extracted.
Unsanitary conditions and poorly trained staff cause painful, infected wounds, following surgery. According to bear farmers in Vietnam, bears rarely survive more than 3 or 4 such procedures.
Korea
In Korea the extraction of bile from live bears is illegal. Instead farmers breed bears and slaughter them in front of their customers to prove the authenticity of the gall bladders (oh my god, but this is more humane than farming them and killing them slowly).
Until recently the legal age at which a farmer could slaughter a bear in Korea was 24 years. As farmed bears rarely live to this age this effectively outlawed the killing of bears in Korea.
In February 2004, the government lowered the legal age of slaughter to 10 years, thereby opening up a much larger supply of bear bile and gall bladders in Korea.
WSPA is lobbying the Korean government to formulate a long-term, strategic plan to phase out bear farming.
1:22 AM
Hello everyone, TreeHuggingFaggot is going through a revamp currently.
As a result, all previous posts have been deleted. You may still read through the archived stuff at http://treehuggingfaggot2.blogspot.com .
Cheers
12:54 AM
Caulibeam