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Cycling to save moon bears
By Ren Canran |
September 11, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A Swiss couple has been bicycling in southern China in a 2,000-kilometer "I Sweat, You Donate" online campaign to raise awareness of the suffering of Asiatic black bears farmed for their bile.
Laetitia Masip and her boyfriend, Davide, from a village near Lausanne set off three years ago on a 20,000km journey to Asia. Three months ago in northern Laos, they decided to dedicate their final 2,000 kilometers to saving moon bears in China.
"We came to China to ride 2,000 kilometers for the moon bears here," Masip, 30, told Shanghai Daily in an e-mail interview at the end of the odyssey in Sichuan Province. The couple is staying on.
"We love China and want to learn more about this beautiful country and culture," she says.
Masip and her boyfriend undertook to raise funds for Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation, which educates the public and rescues and rehabilitates captured bears.
They visited Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, and other areas. In Chengdu last month, they visited Animals Asia Sanctuary, which cares for 167 bears.
"I'm sweating and pushing my bike for Animals Asia Foundation because we want to help them save the bears," Masip says.
The endangered bears, known as moon bears because of the crescent-moon marking on their chests, have been legally farmed in China since the 1980s.
They are milked for their bile, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine and healing throughout East and Southeast Asia. It is used to treat fever, eye ailments, headaches, hemorrhoids and to clean the liver. It is used in shampoos, ointments, wines and many commercial products.
Many effective herbal substitutes are available but traditional healers say real bile is better.
Animal rights activists say the bears suffer terribly, both physically and mentally, since they are confined for their entire lives in cramped "crush" cages and milked several times a day for their digestive bile. Sometimes a catheter is permanently implanted in their gall bladders.
Some pharmaceutical companies claim that bears are humanely treated and in March one invited the media to visit a farm in Fujian Province. Quite a number of farms are unlicensed and illegally capture bears in the wild.
The Swiss bicyclists visited 20 countries and regions in Europe, Central Asia and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Their goal is raising 5,000 British pounds (around US$8,000) and their website (http://www.entreicietla.com) indicates they have raised more than half. While the journey is over, the fundraising goes on.
Masip says the Asian moon bear "scandal" is widely known abroad and when the couple reached Luang Namtha, a small town in northern Laos, they decided that they should do something for moon bears.
"When we came to Yunnan, we saw that a lot of bear bile-related products are sold everywhere, which reassured us that what we are doing is meaningful," Masip says.
"I know that many Chinese people are against bear bile farming and other cruel practices like this," she tells Shanghai Daily. "This doesn't mean that traditional Chinese medicine like bear bile is bad, actually we think it's very good, but not everything and not in an industrial way as we do today."
In the past, the bear bile was used reasonably to save lives, but today there are 54 herbal and other synthetic alternatives that are cheaper, more effective and readily available, Masip says.
"So in addition to the inhumanity, the initial rationale on which this industry was built is no longer valid ... So why not change for a better solution? Nature offers so many wonderful things and we should respect them," she says.
Though the couple hasn't raised a lot of money, Masip says everything makes a difference "because the ocean is filled by drops."
They use standard sturdy, steel-frame bikes with basic components that can be found and fixed around the world.
"When you are cycling, almost every day you are going toward the unknown," Masip says. "In the morning you never know where you will sleep at night or what the day will bring. We just handle it every day as it comes."
Laetitia Masip and her boyfriend, Davide, from a village near Lausanne set off three years ago on a 20,000km journey to Asia. Three months ago in northern Laos, they decided to dedicate their final 2,000 kilometers to saving moon bears in China.
"We came to China to ride 2,000 kilometers for the moon bears here," Masip, 30, told Shanghai Daily in an e-mail interview at the end of the odyssey in Sichuan Province. The couple is staying on.
"We love China and want to learn more about this beautiful country and culture," she says.
Masip and her boyfriend undertook to raise funds for Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation, which educates the public and rescues and rehabilitates captured bears.
They visited Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, and other areas. In Chengdu last month, they visited Animals Asia Sanctuary, which cares for 167 bears.
"I'm sweating and pushing my bike for Animals Asia Foundation because we want to help them save the bears," Masip says.
The endangered bears, known as moon bears because of the crescent-moon marking on their chests, have been legally farmed in China since the 1980s.
They are milked for their bile, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine and healing throughout East and Southeast Asia. It is used to treat fever, eye ailments, headaches, hemorrhoids and to clean the liver. It is used in shampoos, ointments, wines and many commercial products.
Many effective herbal substitutes are available but traditional healers say real bile is better.
Animal rights activists say the bears suffer terribly, both physically and mentally, since they are confined for their entire lives in cramped "crush" cages and milked several times a day for their digestive bile. Sometimes a catheter is permanently implanted in their gall bladders.
Some pharmaceutical companies claim that bears are humanely treated and in March one invited the media to visit a farm in Fujian Province. Quite a number of farms are unlicensed and illegally capture bears in the wild.
The Swiss bicyclists visited 20 countries and regions in Europe, Central Asia and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Their goal is raising 5,000 British pounds (around US$8,000) and their website (http://www.entreicietla.com) indicates they have raised more than half. While the journey is over, the fundraising goes on.
Masip says the Asian moon bear "scandal" is widely known abroad and when the couple reached Luang Namtha, a small town in northern Laos, they decided that they should do something for moon bears.
"When we came to Yunnan, we saw that a lot of bear bile-related products are sold everywhere, which reassured us that what we are doing is meaningful," Masip says.
"I know that many Chinese people are against bear bile farming and other cruel practices like this," she tells Shanghai Daily. "This doesn't mean that traditional Chinese medicine like bear bile is bad, actually we think it's very good, but not everything and not in an industrial way as we do today."
In the past, the bear bile was used reasonably to save lives, but today there are 54 herbal and other synthetic alternatives that are cheaper, more effective and readily available, Masip says.
"So in addition to the inhumanity, the initial rationale on which this industry was built is no longer valid ... So why not change for a better solution? Nature offers so many wonderful things and we should respect them," she says.
Though the couple hasn't raised a lot of money, Masip says everything makes a difference "because the ocean is filled by drops."
They use standard sturdy, steel-frame bikes with basic components that can be found and fixed around the world.
"When you are cycling, almost every day you are going toward the unknown," Masip says. "In the morning you never know where you will sleep at night or what the day will bring. We just handle it every day as it comes."
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