This alert is going to subscribers in the UK and in Asia:
The South China Morning Post and The Times of London both have articles on China's refusal to put an end to bear bile farming in their Friday, January 13 editions. I will paste the articles below.
The articles provide a good opportunity for letters against the practice and about our treatment of other species.
The South China Morning Post takes letters at scmplet@scmp.com
The Times of London takes letters at letters@thetimes.co.uk
Always include your full name, address and phone number.
You'll find lots of information and shocking bear bile farming photos at http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?module=2&lg=en
South China Morning Post
January 13, 2006 Friday
NEWS; Pg. 4
Plea for end to bear bile farming falls on deaf ears;
It's an indispensable ingredient in traditional medicine: wildlife official
Shi Jiangtao in Beijing
China has rejected international calls for an end to the farming of bears for bile, saying it has no plans to order an end to the practice.
It also dismissed criticism that mainland consumption of shark's fin was endangering the species.
Wang Wei, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration's department of wildlife conservation, said bear farming was a market-driven activity in the country because bear bile was considered an indispensable ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine.
"Until we can find a good substitute for bear bile, there is no timetable for the elimination of bear farming," he said yesterday.
Bear bile is used in dozens of Chinese medicines for the treatment of various intestinal and cardiac illnesses.
Mr Wang said the government would not accept a resolution by the European Parliament this week calling on China to phase out bear farms, a move some members said should happen before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"It is undesirable for the international community to link bear farming with other issues," he said.
Mr Wang said a decade-long crackdown on illegal bear breeding had seen the number of farms drop from 480 in the 1990s to 68, and about 7,000 bears were now raised.
Amid widespread criticism over the cruelty of the practice, Mr Wang said the mainland had made the process more humane by introducing painless practices for extracting bile through tubes made of the bears' own tissue. He said the government would set limits on the amount of bear bile to be extracted and on the number of bear farms.
Mr Wang accused some overseas organisations of distorting facts by circulating outdated videos and pictures showing bears being held in small iron cages, a practice banned on the mainland.
However, Jill Robinson, from the Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation, challenged Mr Wang's defence of bear farming.
"Many Chinese doctors we work with are in complete support of herbal and synthetic alternatives, which are cheaper and just as effective," she said. "They say the practice of bear farming damages the reputation of Chinese medicine because it is such an inherently cruel practice and is not in keeping with harmony of nature, as Chinese medicine dictates."
She called on the government to recognise what she alleged was "the great deceit in the unnecessary industry" of bear farming and set a date to end the practice.
Mainland authorities also dismissed criticism that the excessive consumption of shark's fin had endangered sharks.
Li Yanliang, from the Ministry of Agriculture's fisheries bureau, said the allegations were unfounded.
"China's fishing of sharks is based on international conventions, and it has boosted the economies of developing countries in coastal Asia," he said.
The Times (London)
January 13, 2006, Friday
OVERSEAS NEWS; Pg. 42
Siphoning bear bile for medicine is painless, says China
Jane Macartney in Beijing
IT IS a scene replicated in scores of Chinese farms: hundreds of Asian black bears crowded into rows of cages with hardly enough space in which to roll over. Each animal has a hole punched through its abdomen and into its gall bladder. From that hole drips the bile that is sent off for use in traditional Chinese medicines.
Most of the bears -known as moon bears for the crescent of yellowish fur across their chests -were trapped in the wild and are destined to spend dramatically shortened lives in captivity. They die of illness, starvation, tumours or infections of their open wounds.
On the initiative of five British MEPs, Labour and Conservative, the European Parliament this week demanded an immediate ban on this "cruel and uncivilised practice".
But China rejected that demand yesterday. It argued that without a viable substitute, the bile remained an essential ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine and that a campaign launched last year had ended many of the inhumane practices cited by environmentalists.
Wang Wei, deputy director-general of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, said: "We have introduced painless practices for extracting bear bile. Until we can find a good substitute we cannot accept the EU resolution that urges the elimination of bear farming."
Mr Wang said China had closed most of its 480 bear farms and now keeps about 7,000 animals in 68 farms that meet new standards.
The Government encouraged bear farming in the 1990s to stop the endangered animals being hunted -fewer than 19,000 survive in the wild. The process is profitable, with bile fetching up to £ 350 a kilogram. China is believed to produce as much as 7,000kg (15,430lb) a year.
Traditional Chinese doctors use the bitter, green bile to treat eye, liver and other ailments. Yang Liang, of the Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said: "It's definitely painful for the bears, but the synthetic substitute is too different from natural bile.
"Traditional Chinese medicine attaches importance to every material as a whole and not just one ingredient. Laboratory-made bile is just bile acid, but real bear bile has many amino acids and trace elements."
Jill Robinson, the British founder of the Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation, which runs a sanctuary in southwest Sichuan province, disagreed. "It's nonsense.
Bear bile can easily and cheaply be replaced by herbal or synthetic materials."
She urged Beijing to investigate hidden malpractices on the farms, which range from family businesses with a couple of bears to "superfarms" in the northeast with as many as 2,000 animals.
Not all practitioners of Chinese medicine consider bear bile essential. Liu Zhengcai, a professor who has worked as a doctor for more than 40 years and never used the ingredient, said bile first appeared as a folk remedy in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and was said to be effective in treating eye diseases.
"Traditionally, people believe bear bile can relieve internal heat or fever," he said. "Actually it functions as an anti-inflammatory and many other Chinese medicines -such as chrysanthemums -or Western medicines are more effective. Bear bile is not a magic cure."
It could even do harm. Ms Robinson said that her sanctuary had received 198 bears and every one had to have its damaged gallbladder removed. "In 100 per cent of cases, we have found pus in the bile," she said. "We wonder, what is that pus doing to the end consumer? So, far from healing people, it could be harming them."
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Date: Fri Jan 13 14:10:35 2006
