China's Bear Bile Industry Slowly Dying

CHENGDU, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- In a tranquil patch of woods in Chengdu, southwest China, 107 bears rest after a life of agony and incarceration.

The special cemetery of the Moon Bear Rescue Center, built by Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) in Sichuan Province, is for bears once farmed for their bile.

Three freed bears from a Shandong bear-bile farm were recently buried here after their rehabilitation at the center failed.

Liver cancers and organ failures, a result of years of painful bile extraction, finally claimed them, said Wang Fan, bear carer with the center.

The practice of extracting bear bile can be traced back to ancient times when people first started consuming the bile, which allegedly has curative effects for ailments such as eye and liver problems.

For over 3,000 years bears have been hunted in Asian countries for their gallbladders and the valuable bile within. Only in the 1980s, after rampant hunting greatly reduced their numbers, did countries like China and the Republic of Korea take steps to ban bear hunting.

But wild bears were then caught and farmed for their bile.

By the end of 2009, bear farming was still legal in 13 of Chinese mainland's 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, and bear-bile products can still be seen across China.

In Chengdu, bear-bile powder can sell for as high as 4,000 yuan (598 U.S. dollars) a kilogram. Some high-end alcohol and shampoo products also list bear bile as an ingredient.

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