Asiatic Black Bears and Asia: Will Bile Industry Fall?

Not keen on hearing about bears kept in cages while liquids are extracted from them? The London-based nonprofit World Animal Protection (WAP) is one of several organizations working to decrease the bear bile farming industry in Asia. The farms extract a digestive fluid from the gall bladders of Asiatic black bears and two other small bear types. The bears are kept in cramped cages, often for life, as has been widely reported.

The Asiatic black bear, Ursus thibetanus, is already endangered, as National Geographic reported in 2012.

While the industry continues to sell bile for use in Chinese traditional medicine, backlash against the bear treatment practices, which many view as cruel, has grown in Asia. In 2011, one Chinese company that extracts bear bile tried to list on the Chinese stock market. After fury broke out among Chinese Internet users, the firm eventually withdrew its public listing application, although it did not give a reason, Reuters reported.

Officials from WAP said they aim to introduce legislation to make bear farming illegal, but currently they're sterilizing bears so that they cannot be used as brood stock on bile farms. From 2014 to the end of June, they have sterilized 946 captive bile bears, working partly with the local partner Green Korea United in South Korea, says a release.

"The agreement by bear farmers to have bears sterilized is a huge development that will stop more bears being born into a lifetime of suffering," noted WAP's Director of Programs for Asia Pacific, Emily Reeves, in a release.