UNBEARABLE © Animal's Asia
Jill Robinson's speech at the recent 'Asia for Animals Conference'.

China Bear Rescue Centre - Much More Than a Sanctuary

Experts at Minnesota University in the US show bear bile to have potential benefits for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s patients. But does that justify the slaughter of bears in the wild when we know there are so many cheap and easily available alternatives? Of course not.

Further, when you turn these bears into machines and factory farm them under abhorrent conditions then the rot, literally, begins to set in.

First and foremost the use of bear bile – whether from a healthy wild bear or a factory farmed bear - is utterly inexcusable knowing that no-one is going to die for the lack of it.

But still this abhorrent practice is allowed to continue and still virtually every gall bladder we remove from rescued bears has pus in the bile and is damaged literally beyond repair. The damage originates,

astonishingly, as a result of a method fully sanctioned by Chinese regulations - the so-called “free-dripping” method whereby a hole is carved into the abdomen and gall bladder in order that bile can freely drip out.

Fourex was a bear we euthanised shortly after her arrival at our Rescue Centre in January 2005. She was a free-drip victim.

For Fourex, life on a bear farm had left her with a crushed and badly infected front paw, a partially amputated hind paw that had been snared, a fractured jaw, a canine tooth which punctured through the jaw bone, and shattered teeth.

She had a free-dripping fistula that leaked pus and bile and skin abscesses surrounding string-like sutures. She also had anaemia, and, finally, bile peritonitis - and she had not a hope in hell of surviving

this catalogue of abuse, leaving us with no alternative but to end her suffering on our surgery table.

But the story – the deceit – gets worse. One of the many problems with the free-dripping fistula technique is that the opening continually tries to heal over, which makes it difficult for the farmer to extract bile.

In 2005, we began to see a new type of fistulation that farmers are using to prevent this problem while circumventing the regulations. The farmer inserts a short Perspex catheter into the free-drip hole and gall bladder and cuts the tube flush with the surface of the abdomen just beneath the skin. Unless the bears with this fake free drip methods of fistulation are closely inspected, the clear plastic catheter is all but invisible through the bear’s fur and the hole in the bear’s abdomen looks like a regulation free-dripping fistula.

Hope was a wild-caught bear who came to us in January 2005, typically thin and terrified of people, she had a snare wound around her neck - and a fake free-drip fistula.

She also had a large mass which was filled with pockets of pus in her abdomen. In the centre of this mass we found a catheter of solid plastic, held in place by crude cotton string and two wire flanges that had penetrated one lobe of her liver and was anchored into her sternum.

Hope also had peritonitis and once again we dealt with the truth of this industry, euthanizing another bear on the surgery table after it became obvious that she would not recover.

This free drip fistula method was first detailed by China CITES Representative, Dr. Fan Zhiyong, at an international bear symposium in October 1999 who said: “The opening of the gallbladder fistula is similar to the anus and can be blocked by muscle contraction. The bears do not suffer any more.”

This statement epitomizes a lack of even basic medical knowledge but worse it epitomizes the ongoing deceit of the farmers who invent new methods of bile extraction in order to persuade the government that bear farming is humane. These farmers are literally getting away with murder.

However, apart from the obvious damage and pain and death it causes to the bears – does bile from such animals really help the end consumer?

Our research shows that 37% of deaths of fistulated bears at our Bear Rescue Centre are due to cancer in the bile duct system. This is an extraordinary rate, and these are extraordinary cancers, most often attached to the right liver lobe and inoperable – with some of these tumours weighing over 7 kgs in weight. We believe that this cancer is related to the chronic inflammation, infection and trauma caused by bile extraction. Research is underway to investigate this hypothesis but, what it does to people who consume bile from bears that are so ill, and that is so often mixed with pus, is unknown.

The bears that die at our Rescue Centre never die in vain. Bears like Andrew – our majestic icon who was the first bear to arrive in October 2000. Everyone loved Andrew from the second he arrived. A wild caught bear missing a limb from a leghold trap, Andrew’s character was surprisingly placid.

He was a bear who charmed everyone – whether other bears or people – who had the honour to meet him. He went on to be the "Uncle" of all the other bears - patiently tolerating the younger mischievous juveniles like Prince leaping all over him. And as for the female bears – well it was clear that they all fell head over heels in love with this handsome Brad Pitt of the bear world.

Andrew became sick last February and when we performed exploratory surgery nothing prepared us for the sight of a 7.3 kg tumour surpassing anything we had seen before. Andrew’s condition was hopeless - we had to let him go.

Amongst over 1000 tributes we received from around the world, someone wrote: "You are not weaker without Andrew, you are stronger because of him” and we are, – because Andrew and all the other bears before and after him will never die in vain at our Rescue Centre. The results of literally thousands of hours of surgery and health checks will be published soon in a report which will see shockwaves in China and worldwide.

So this is just one of the features of our Rescue Centre – a showcase for publicizing the truth behind this ugly industry, which still today sees 7000 bears held captive under deplorable conditions on farms in China.

Since 1993, team members of Animals Asia have conducted both overt and covert investigations of over 50 bear farms across Asia and continue to research the industry through interviews with Government officials, Traditional Medicine practitioners, stakeholders in the trade and even bear farmers themselves. I took these pictures on a bear farm myself in the last year showing bears in full metal jackets and tiny wire cages – despite the claims that these practices no longer exist.

To date, Animals Asia has rescued 219 of these bears and, despite the sad stories of those we’ve lost, we have a pretty remarkable survival rate with 176 living at our Sanctuary today.

With so many bears on site today, there are always health checks and surgical operations being carried out.

Our Vets are performing surgeries which take anything between 3 to 9 hours repairing a lifetime of damage inflicted on these poor bears on the farms.

We also operate as a training centre and have seen vets from across the world either being trained or specialist vets training us in various skills such as specialist dentistry and root canals on large carnivores.

Our Rescue Centre also rises to the challenge of integrating members of a species together which are naturally solitary in the wild. We have 10 football pitch sized enclosures which include Rehab areas and enclosures in bamboo forest which allow us to select the right environment for bears of all shapes, sizes and personalities and with varying degrees of disabilities such as missing legs, eyes or teeth.

In a 10 day period over 20 different programmes of enrichment and sensory stimulations are introduced to keep our bears busy and happy. They are encouraged into healthy exercise to repair severely atrophied muscles, and so that their intelligent minds are fully occupied, simply foraging as they would in the wild.

We have special enclosure for our disabled bears (who were illegally caught in leghold traps in this so-called legal industry) which allows us to easily watch over and manage them.

An animals’ disability is usually more of a problem to the audience than to the animals themselves and these bears shin up platforms or swim in pools despite having one or even two limbs missing.

Our sanctuary not only helps bears but people in the community too. The Sanctuary provides much needed employment for over 140 local Chinese staff and utilises local products from the surrounding community whether it be construction materials, or food and produce for bears and people alike.

Education is also key factor - and we now have regular Open Days where literally thousands of children, students and adults from China and across the world visit us throughout the year. Our Chinese visitors especially leave with an inspired respect for animals, understanding why bear farming is wrong and realising that they have a role to play in the destiny of animals in their country.

A great deal of time is spent with media interviews on site for local and international journalists who have been seen to break down in tears when reporting on bears like Quantock with his pitifully worn away face, but who then go back to their desks to report the truth.

Our time is also spent entertaining the frequent visitors which can include Chinese Government officials or members of the European Parliament. What doesn’t go unnoticed either is the irony of the forthcoming Olympic Games in Beijing now being named the "Green Olympics" – where nothing could conflict more with that statement than the sight of endangered, caged and suffering bears rotting away on the farms.

Our Rescue Centre is also fundamentally important as a base for Traditional Chinese Medicine promotion – promoting the herbal alternatives to bear bile and other animals used in Chinese pharmacaoepia. Thank heavens for people like Professor Liu who has helped us develop a TCM garden and tirelessly (and aggressively) calls for bear farming to end.

We have Celebrities on site including Karen Mok, the Madonna of Asia, a beautiful, talented singer and actress who visited us again in May. She stayed on site for 3 days to take part in the new documentary of our work for Animal Planet and also held a concert in China for the bears reaching 1000’s of supporters – where she wore a dress made of human hair and said; "this is the only fur we should wear on our bodies", before singing a haunting song with a huge screen behind her showing our bears playing in the grass.

A beautiful bear rescued in December 2005 also has a beautiful and very well known sponsor; the lovely Dr. Dame Jane Goodall who visited our site, helped with the rescue of a newly arrived farmed bear, gently sprinkling water on his head and christening him Mandela in recognition of how forgiving these bears are after so many years of imprisonment.

Steve Irwin who brought passion into wildlife also visited us on site. He took one look at Franzi, a 29 year old bear – 90 in human years – and said “well, she’s a hot little tart!” Well it seems he knew something we didn’t, because a few weeks after he left, we caught Franzi, this little bear who’d been crushed in a cage for 25 years, now with Rupert our brain damaged bear, hugging him in a clinch which would put a WWF wrestler to shame. To this day she adores her bear boyfriend of very little brain.

We have also just begun construction of a Rescue Centre for 200 farmed bears in Vietnam where we’ve been working since 1998. This is particularly exciting as bear farming is illegal in Vietnam. The Govt. there are keen to end the industry as soon as possible and have been working with WSPA to microchip all the farmed bears. Now it’s the challenge of Animals Asia to complete our Sanctuary and Education Centre in the shortest possible time scale to welcome bears, most of whom are missing limbs, as every farmed bear in Vietnam is wild caught.

So, our Rescue Centres are a place of peace, a place of unbridled excitement, knowing that the bears are convincing everyone who meets them that they should be loved and respected for their own sakes rather than how they can benefit humankind. We give the bears something they’ve never had before – the choice. The choice to play and integrate with new friends, or lead a solitary lifestyle as so many of them would choose to do in the wild. The bears have our promise that we will care for them for the rest of their 30 year lifespan – they deserve nothing less.

Finally our Rescue Centre is a sanctuary of optimism and hope where bears like Andrew will always be remembered with love and respect. Where bears like Truth - whose picture I’ve promised to show at every presentation - never die in vain and where bears like Jasper wake up every single day with the sun on their backs and without fear in their hearts.

How can people help? Well........please please go on to our website where a million suggestions exist. One major help is to write polite letters to the Chinese Embassies in your area encouraging the ongoing rescue of farmed bears into Animals Asia's Sanctuary and asking directly for China to close the industry down as they have in both S.Korea and Vietnam in recognition that bear farming does nothing to protect the species in the wild and is inherently cruel to the victims themselves.

Please keep these issues burning in your local newspapers as we approach the Beijing Olympic Games in August 2008 and help us to bring this abhorrent unnecessary industry to an end.

Jill Robinson MBE
Founder & CEO
Animals Asia Foundation

ANIMALS ASIA HAS A BRAND NEW WEBSITE!

Find out more about the "China Bear Rescue" and "Friends.....or Food" http://www.animalsasia.org