Bear farming in China
While the Chinese are well know for caring for nature
and all in it, some also have a barbaric side that not
many in the world realise is there. What could the Chinese
possibly do that would go against their practises which
promote peace and harmony amongst both man and beast?
The barbaric act is know as Bear farming, many of
the Chinese medicines which for thousands of years has
been promoted to helping man and their pets, in fact
contains an ingredient called bile. Bile is a digestive
liquid which is stored in the gall bladder and secreted
by the liver, the bile used in many Chinese herbal remedies
is Bear bile.
In the past it was traditional to catch and kill bears
in the wild, their bile was then taken after removal
of the gall bladder. However over the decades bears
became scarce and bile quickly became liquid gold.
So it was during the 80`s that the Chinese turned to
a technique which originated from North Korea and which
allowed them to extract the bile from the bear without
the need for killing it. Now you might be saying “well
this is good isn’t it, the bears are looked after,
not killed, and so what’s so wrong with that,
it’s not such a bad deal?”
Well no, it’s not a bad deal, except if you
happen to be the bear in question. If you think it’s
not a bad deal then put yourself in the bears place
for a second, picture this, and then decide if it’s
such a good deal.
You are in cage; you cannot move around, you cannot
scratch if you have an itch because the cage is barely
bigger than you. As a result you cannot move at all,
you cannot stretch your limbs, muscles or back, as a
result of this your muscles begin to atrophy. Usually
to make life safer for your captors you will have had
your claws and canine teeth removed and now you will
be eating nothing but porridge or grain mash.
As if denying you your freedom and restricting you
in this way isn’t bad enough you will also have
had an incision made in your abdomen into which a catheter
has been inserted. Not a pain free incision in a sanitary
environment, but a crude rough cut. The catheter goes
directly into your gall bladder and it is extracting
your bile twice a day, every day, which then goes for
sale for a good price, all in the interest of course
of making life pleasanter for millions of people and
their pets.
So the next time you have to have that “fashionable”
Chinese herbal remedy that can smooth away those wrinkles
think about the bear and ask yourself, “is it
such a bad deal?”
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