The Cruelty of Milking Bear Bile

Recent developments show that approximately 9,000 bears are kept for bear bile farming.

Each day, hundreds of bears are surgically mutilated for their gall bile on bear farms in China.

In China, before 1996, to milk bile meant to insert a metal or rubber tube directly into bear's gall bladder, leading the bile run through the tube. People often prevented the wound healing. And to prevent the bears from taking away the tube, people would dress the bear with an armour.

After 1996, tube and armour were forbidden to use, bile fistula implantations took place of it. However, this method also cause great suffering to the bears.

Chinese specialists in bear farming techniques inform that for every two successful bile fistula implantations, there are another two or three bear deaths due to complications and infections.

During bile milking, the bears show signs of severe distress. Moaning and banging of heads against the cage is common, while some bears were seen to chew their own paws. Even after they are set free, they always unconsciously shake their heads, for this has become their habit.

From the age of three, these bears are put in the cage for bear bile. Bears can easily get liver cancer without enough bile. While bears stop producing bile, they are then put in another cage, where they wait, either until death comes through sickness or starvation, or they are killed for their paws and gall bladders.

Is Bear Bile on your shelf or in your diet?

In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth in the production of bear bile products, which has spawned a market for a whole new range of items far removed from the formulations of traditional Chinese medicine. Today, bile is used as an ingredient in shampoo, wine, eye drops and all manner of pre-prepared ointments.

There are many alternatives to Bear Bile

There are many alternatives to bear bile on the market, containing the active constituent found in bear bile: UrsoDeoxyCholic Acid (UDCA). It is estimated that 100,000 kg of synthesised UDCA is already being consumed each year in China, Japan and South Korea, and that the world consumption may be double this figure.

Many Chinese practitioners also state that there are at least 75 herbal alternatives that can replace the use of bear bile.

A passionate advocate for animals, Jackie Chan has once again teamed up with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) to create awareness of a little-known example of appalling cruelty to animals — bear farming in Asia. He called for an end to the cruel practice and showing the intense suffering and deplorable conditions bears on farms are forced to endure.