Anger over use of bear bile in traditional medicine production
Protesters call for the rejection of public listing bid by company that makes products extracted from live animals.
ANIMAL lovers have mounted pressure on yet another controversial industry in China, with the bile bear farmers and producers being the latest target of a growing force opposing cruelty to bears.
The anti-bear bile production protesters joined forces by dressing up as moon bears in the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Dalian, Shenyang and Macau and appealing to the China Securities Regulatory Commission through the media nationwide to reject a public listing bid by Guizhentang Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.
The company based in Fujian province’s Quanzhou, which manufactures traditional Chinese medicine products extracted from bear bile, had earlier this year submitted its application for initial public offering on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s growth enterprise board.
This is the company’s second attempt for listing after its failure due to similar protests around the same time last year.
Animals Asia Foundation has written an appeal letter to the commission saying that bear bile production was a high-risk and unsustainable industry and extracting bile from bears alive was a cruel act as the animals would suffer from pain on their wounds.
Meanwhile, more than 70 public figures, including Chinese snooker player Ding Junhui, singer Han Hong and swimmer Zhang Lin, signed a petition initiated by the Ta Foundation, a non-governmental organisation which advocates care and respect for animals.
In an open letter along with the signatures posted on its website, the foundation urged the commission to consider the consequences should the company’s application be approved.
In recent years, the government had enacted several regulations to control the development of the bear bile production industry.
But, Guizhentang plans to raise more money through listing and expand its bear farms; this obviously contradicts the government’s policy, it said.
The sina.com.cn and qq.com, two of China’s largest portals, conducted surveys on the Netizens’ reaction on the issue. The surveys showed that 90% of the 19,000 respondents were against the listing of the company.
The qq.com’s Anti-guizhentang Listing Campaign also attracted more than 3.4 million people.
Clarifying the state of the bear farms and and the latest bile extraction technology in China, Fang Shuting, who is the president of China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said the current technique would not cause pain to the bears.
Before the 1990s, what happened was that the bear would be killed and soon after that its bile would be extracted while it was still hot.
“Then, we learned the new bile extraction technique from neighbouring countries. The extraction process is as easy, natural and painless as turning on a tap. After the process, the bear can go out and play. There is nothing unusual and the bears even look comfortable,” he said last Thursday.
However, Animals Asia Foundation China external affairs director Zhang Xiaohai said even if the technique had improved and dripping tubes were no longer used, the wounds on the bears would be hard to heal.
They would need to make a hole in the bear’s stomach and another hole in the gallbladder.
Then they would use the bear’s inner body tissue such as small intestine to make a fistula which will be connected to both the gallbladder and stomach.
Alternatively, they can also pull the bear’s gallbladder against the abdominal wall and sew them together. Everyday they will poke a tube into the bear’s stomach and the bile will flow out from the gallbladder, he said on China Central Television.
He said after the bile extraction operation was done on the bear, its gallbladder would be prone to infection and diseases.
Zhang said if the industry players were so confident to say that the extraction process caused no pain to the bears, they should be transparent with the industry and invite the media to their farms.
“Can we shave the fur on the bear’s stomach with an electric clipper? It will then be very clear to us how much bear bile has leaked out and whether its wound is infected or not,” he added.
At the press conference, Fang said the association was speaking on behalf of the industry and not Guizhentang.
He denied that Guizhentang was its member but the association later clarified in a newspaper that after double checking, it found that the company was indeed its member.
On Saturday, Guizhentang posted a statement on its website inviting the media, politicians, NGOS and experts to its bear farm on Wednesday and Friday to see the production of bear bile.
But, the website was blacked out later that day.
According to the association, China has 68 legal companies involved in bile bear farming with more than 10,000 bears. Bear bile is said to be a popular ingredient for its ability to cure liver and eye ailments and remove toxins.