Says China Fueling Illegal Trade in Bear Parts

WILLIAMS, OR – Today, Big Wildlife, a wildlife protection organization based in the Pacific Northwest, urged Olympic athletes and the International Olympic Committee to condemn China’s routine and systematic abuse of bears.  Throughout China and across much of Asia, bear parts – including gallbladders, bile, hides, and paws – are coveted for use in traditional medicine and hailed as a cure-all for a variety of ailments from sexual impotency to treating fevers. Bear paws are also considered a delicacy in soup in China and other parts of Asia. Big Wildlife said demand for bear parts is fueling an international bear trade industry, leading to an escalation in poaching of bears and trafficking of bear parts around the world.

“China’s insatiable appetite for bear parts, including gall bladders, bile, hides, and paws, is fueling a grisly trade that stretches across the globe. Today, we urge Olympic heroes to take a stand against China's systematic abuse of one of the world's most magnificent animals,” said Brian Vincent, Big Wildlife’s Communications Director.

Each of Asia’s five bear species – the sun bear, sloth-bear, brown bear, Asiatic black bear, and the giant panda – has suffered from the Chinese medicinal trade, as well as from habitat destruction. As a result, bears in North America and Russia are increasingly killed, many illegally, to supply the booming Asian market. An estimated 80,000 black bears are killed in the U.S. every year to meet demands in bear parts for Asia. In the U.S., there are no federal restrictions on selling bear parts. Each state has its own laws regulating the trade. And the bear parts trade is big business. Undercover investigations have revealed that a dried bear gallbladder can be worth as much as $30,000 and a single serving of bear paw soup can go for as much as $1,400. World-wide trafficking of bear parts is valued at $2 billion.

Big Wildlife also said in China nearly 10,000 bears are kept in “farms” where they are routinely drained of their bile through devices implanted in the animals. Bears are confined in cages, which vary from tiny "crush" cages to larger pens, all of which cause terrible physical and mental trauma. The bears are subjected to painful methods of bile extraction involving crude surgery to implant a steel catheter into the abdomen or the creation of a permanent hole in the abdomen known as the "free-dripping" technique. Many bears die as a result of the unsanitary surgery and those that survive spend the rest of their lives suffering in pain and deprivation.

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