By Faraz
Rescued. Freed from torture. Given a second chance at life. This is what the Four Paws Bear Sanctuary has done. They have freed these beautiful, majestic moon bears from the hands of inhuman owners. These bears were captured from the wild, trafficked, and sold to bile farmers who forced the bears to live in cages too small to stand in. On a regular basis, the owners savagely beat them out of their cages and pierced their gallbladders with steel catheters to extract bile. In Chinese and Vietnamese traditional medicine, bear bile is falsely believed to have unique properties that heal diseases such as cancer. Some of the barbaric owners cut off the bears’ paws, to use in special wines. Subjected to such treatment for years, decades for some, many of these bears can never be returned to the wild due to an abundance of medical issues that require daily doses of medicine.
Vietnam continues to be a major source and consumer of bear bile despite actions taken in 2005 by the Vietnamese authorities to ban the extraction of bile from bears. However, bear bile farmers were still allowed to keep the bears they owned, due to a shortage of rescue centers to facilitate the estimated 4,500 bears in captivity. Allowed to keep their bears, farmers continued to extract bile, in violation of Vietnamese law. Due to the law, the Bear Sanctuary is not permitted to conduct raids on bear bile farms. They must work alongside Vietnamese authorities to prove the owners are extracting bile before they can rescue the bears.
The number of bears in captivity in Vietnam is currently estimated at 800 bears, a decline from the 4,500 fifteen years ago. Even so, this is not entirely good news. The decline in the number of bears in captivity coincides with the decline in the price of farmed bear bile. At its height in 2005, farmed bear bile prices were at 10 USD per milliliter contrasting with the 2 USD per milliliter now. This is because believers in traditional medicine claim the quality of farmed bear bile is inferior in comparison to that of wild bears, because of poor nutrition and high extraction rates.
Therefore, the hunting of bears from the wild has increased to meet the increasing demand for wild bear bile, which can fetch up to 12 times the price of farmed bear bile. This, along with the Vietnamese government’s plan to target zero bear farms by 2022, could result in dire consequences. There is then no incentive for bear owners to keep paying for their upkeep; especially when bile prices are at a steep decline and with the government closing in, many bear owners are choosing to kill off their bears and make a profit from the bears’ body parts, according to The ASEAN Post. The question is can the animal sanctuaries, alongside the government, rescue the bears before it’s too late?
Four Paws is an international organization with sanctuaries for bears across Europe and LIONSROCK in South Africa to care for the rich African wildlife. The Bear Sanctuary in Ninh Binh is very well maintained, clean, and spacious for the bears to thrive. They are currently caring for 33 bears with a capacity to house 100 bears and plans to expand if required. The cost for caring for one bear is $8-9 per day and Four Paws Bear Sanctuary are accepting donations. We strongly recommend you donate to them so that they can continue to plan rescue traumatized bears and house the majestic moon bears who have arrived in paradise after their time in hell.