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Help End Bear Bile Farming in China

Fiona | 27.10.2005 10:54 | Animal Liberation | World

The Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) urgently needs your help to get the European Parliament to pass a resolution to end Moon bear bile farming in China- forever.



For this declaration to become European Union policy it needs to receive the support of over 367 MEPs across Europe. There are 732 MEPs across Europe, so we need to get the backing of over half of them.

Once we have this, the President of the European Parliament will write to the Chinese Government calling for an end to bear farming in China. This would be a major step forward to encouraging the Chinese government to end this practice once and for all.

Known as ‘Moon’ Bears for the beautiful golden crescent across their chests, these Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listed endangered bears are subjected to a lifetime of torture and misery.

The Bears are ‘milked’ for their bile using horrific methods of bile extraction that cause severe mental and unimaginable physical pain. The bile is used in Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM); however, there are over fifty herbal and synthetic products available that are cheaper and equally efficacious.

About the Declaration
The Declaration calls on the Chinese Government to initiate a countrywide ban on breeding bears on farms. It also calls for a clear time-limit for the end of bear farming and that the Chinese Government work with the AAF in accelerating the closure of all bear farms through programmes benefiting bears currently held captive and farmers reliant on the industry.

If you live in the EU area please write to your MEP asking him or her to sign this declaration. If you can write please cc Dave Neale at Animals Asia (dneale[nospam]@animalsasia.org

To find your MEP and their email address please visit
 http://www.europarl.eu.int/members/public.do?language=en

If you live in the UK you can find details of your MEPs and email them through this website www.writetothem.com

Declaration details for your letter EU declaration (0052/2005) on Rising International Concern over the Farming of Bear Bile in Chinese issued by MEPs David Martin, Neil Parrish, Peter Skinner, Robert Evans and Terence Wynn

For more information about Bear Bile Farming visit  http://www.animalsasia.org

Fiona
- e-mail: fosler[nospam]@animalsasia.org
- Homepage: http://www.animalsasia.org

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

What can you do?

27.10.2005 19:45

It's a shame, but what's the alternative? If the bears aren't farmed, they'll be hunted. They're already endangered, if they're hunted for their bile on the black market then they could easily be hunted into extinction.

Humpty Dumpty

Black Market bile

28.10.2005 09:50

In response to Humpty,

Farming bears for their bile doesn't actually work to keep wild bears away from the hands of poachers. The availability of bear bile merely acts to perpetuate the market and ensure that demand remains. Users of bear bile are willing to pay higher prices for bile, taken from gall bladders of wild bears as it is thought to be more potent. It fetches a premium and is thus an attractive option for illegal wildlife traders.

this in fact is the problem with all trade in endangered species. Farming of them is often put forward as a measure that will take the pressure off wild populations. In fact the opposite is the case. Supply stimulates demand and demand is then met by illegal wildlife traders, it is cheaper to shoot a tiger, leopard etc than to raise it in captivity, the profits are bigger, and the people that buy it are getting the really potent product.

Banning the trade in endangered species completely and ensuring that the necessary resources are given to enforcement agencies tasked with preventing poaching is the only really effective way to protect species in the wild.

Farming is not only hideously cruel but counterpordcutive in conservation terms.

Danger

But where will we get the bile from?

28.10.2005 11:10

If we stop farming bears for their bile, where will the world's bile supplies come from?

Maybe if you Leftists took a few less drugs, you'd be able to think straight and use a little Common Sense!

Wardrobe Wyatt

Alternative sources of bile

28.10.2005 11:41

Well there are plenty of synthetic alternatives.

But my preferred choice would be to cage all the right wing extremists and milk them for their bile - they are full of it. And lets face it they serve no other useful purpose.

Danger

Danger

28.10.2005 14:23

I'd like to think that simply banning the trade in endangered species would get rid of the market for their products (I mean let's face it, I can't see bear bile having any medicinal qualities!). But it doesn't work. The demand for their products is the same as ever. The plight of tigers in India is a good example of this. India has a very good protection and enforcement scheme for tiger poaching, but it isn't working as the demand is still there. If they were farmed, it would not only protect the wild population, but also give an income for impoverished farmers.

As for the assumption that people will pay more for wild killed bear products, there's a simple solution. Sell farmed bear bile on the black market, pretending that it's from bears shot in the wild! The black market price would plummet. People wouldn't know the difference and as soon as it comes out that what they're buying is farmed anyway, they'll end up going straight back to legal sources.

Humpty Dumpty

economics

28.10.2005 15:13

It is a simple case of economics - make alternatives available for cheaper then the industry will die.

Or shac style tactics could be used to encourage the businesses involved in this to stop doing it and to find alternative forms of income.

Disclaimer: This is not advocation of any form of 'terrorism' instead it is advocation of 'direct action'.

fredrico
mail e-mail: musteatvegan@yahoo.co.uk