The recovery of panda bears from near-extinction thanks to Chinese and Western conservationists is worth celebrating.

Yet, behind this victory is a contradiction about their cousins – called “moon bears” – thanks to the golden crescent on their chests. They are also called “bile bears.”

There are an estimated 12,500 of them held in crush cages in China and others in Vietnam. These bears are literally farmed alive for their body parts. Their bile is milked daily through rusty catheters thrust deep in their gallbladders. The bears live a life of torture before dying of chronic infection and sheer misery. Their teeth are deliberately crushed. They cannot move.

This cruel extraction technique is not ancient – it was invented in the 1980s. Bile is marketed as a traditional medical tonic, though harmless substitutes are available.

I saw a poached bear cub myself, destined for life in a cage behind a restaurant where bile tonic was sold.

China has not one animal cruelty law. So, while it boasts of panda recovery, it not only allows inhumane treatment of panda cousins but also even invests in pharmaceutical bear farms where acres of them are captive in what resemble our dairy farms, except the stalls stink of captive bears, their feces and fear.

They never get a cake.

Barbara Skapa
supporting member, Animals Asia Foundation
Mt. Vernon

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