Care for the Bear Appeal
Please help us to protect bears from unimaginable suffering and terrible exploitation
- (c) Animals Asia; Bile is extracted from a living bear
- (c) Animals Asia; This bear lost a leg in a cruel leg-hold trap
- (c) Animals Asia; A bear farm in Vietnam
Gazing despairingly from the rusty cage, his paw reaches out through the bars. A moon bear; beautiful, inquisitive and intelligent. Kept in a cruel bear ‘farm’, he is painfully ‘milked’ for his bile.
Caught from the wild, this bear lost a limb in a vicious leghold trap. His teeth and claws have been brutally removed. Now his world is a cramped metal cage, with no room to move. He has a terrible wound in his stomach, where a crude metal catheter has been inserted to extract bile from his gall bladder. The pain is excruciating and the wound has become severely infected.
Bear bile is a traditional ingredient in Asian medicine and is extracted from living bears. There are more than 7,000 bears held in horrific conditions in China, with another 3,400 in Vietnam. What these animals go through is unimaginable. Unsurprisingly, farmed bears have a life expectancy of just four years, compared to up to 25 years in the wild.
Bear bile has been used for thousands of years to treat liver and intestinal diseases. But herbal and synthetic alternatives are now readily available and just as effective. Animals Asia has campaigned tirelessly to end the brutal practice of bear-farming. Their China Bear Rescue Centre near Chengdu has rescued more than 200 bears so far.
Here, vunerable newcomers arrive to be expertly treated by the sanctuary’s vet. The bears enjoy delicious nutritious food, lush natural foliage and swimming in cool water. But what about the bears languishing in Vietnam? We must help them.
There is hope. The Vietnamese government has made a firm commitment to phase-out bearfarming. Animals Asia has been given permission to initially rescue 200 bears in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital. Wonderful news. Born Free needs to raise £10,000 to help Animals Asia build a new rescue centre, release bears from their cages, treat their wounds, and give them care for life. Your gift could help make this dream a reality.
I want to also tell you about a tiny frightened bear cub in India. Poachers burnt a hole through his nose with a red-hot poker. A rope was threaded through so he could be trained to ‘dance’, lifting his feet to avoid the excruciating pain of the hot plate he was forced to stand on. It is estimated India has 600 dancing bears and International Animal Rescue want to provide a safe haven for each of them. Click here to find out more.
If, like me, you find this exploitation and suffering quite intolerable, please help us. Your kind gift will help us care for the bears. Thank you.
Virginia McKenna Born Free Founder & Trustee
How your gift will help care for bears
- £11 will buy a bag of life-saving intravenous fluids
- £15 will provide medicines for a rescued bear
- £100 will provide vet care and food for two bears for a month
- £5,200 will pay for the complete rescue of one bear
We are asking the caring British public to help us get these Bear Necessities.
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