Not everyone welcome at bile farm
By Tan Weiyun, Wang Qingchu |
February 23, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IN a bid to quell public anger over bear bile extraction, a practice that animal rights organizations liken to torture, Guizhentang, a Fujian Province-based pharmaceutical company, held an open day yesterday.
However, visitors had to apply for entry in advance and at least one person, a spokesman for Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation (AAF), was turned away at the gate.
Zhang Xiaohai had to stay outside the base because, according to Guizhentang, "AAF didn't obey the application process."
The company's farm in Hui'an County, Quanzhou City, is the largest bear base in south China with more than 600 black bears. Their value to the company is around 200 million yuan (US$31.8 million) a year.
But the company has expansion plans and earlier this month announced it would be seeking an IPO (initial public offering) to raise cash by selling shares.
Yesterday, a number of celebrities joined animal welfare activists to sign a letter to the China Securities Regulatory Commission protesting the IPO plan, including former NBA star Yao Ming, TV host Yang Lan and Olympic champion skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo.
Visitors who were allowed in to the bear base yesterday were shown three areas - an extraction zone, breeding zone and free-range zone.
Easier to extract
In the extraction zone they saw around 300 adult black bears, two to a cage. The breeding zone is for newborns, while the free-range zone has facilities such as swings and horizontal bars for bears under three.
The adults give bile twice a day, at 6am and 5pm, because bile is easier to extract when they are being fed.
A staff worker was seen disinfecting a surgical cut in the bear's abdomen, and inserting a 12-centimeter tube. The bile flowed out before he removed the tube and disinfected the cut again. Each bear can produce up to 2,000 milliliters every day.
The whole process took about 30 seconds, during which the bear was consuming liquid food and remained quiet. The company said the procedure was "healthy, sustainable and painless."
"If without proper extraction, the bile would be wasted anyhow. The bile we collect is less than 10 percent of the total, which causes no harm to the bear," it said.
The bears are home-bred, not wild animals.
"Wild black bears can live about 30 years, but our bears in the base can live up to 45 years," Zhang Zhiyun, a Guizhentang board member, told visitors. "We never anesthetize the bears before the extraction," he said. "During the past 10 years, the death rate of bears in the base is zero."
AAF, however, says that 99 percent of bears used for bile collection have gallbladder infections and about 22 percent have gallbladder stones as large as 7 to 8 centimeters. Other diseases included kidney ailments and cardiovascular problems.
Liver cancer
Of the 277 bears AAF had rescued since 2000, 121 had died with 35 percent of them from liver cancer, a high incidence rate, AAF's senior veterinarian Monica Bando said at a press conference in Beijing earlier this week.
Zhang Xiaohai said yesterday: "It's so ridiculous to say 'painless extraction.' Would you feel pain if I cut with a knife on your gallbladder?"
In traditional Chinese medicine, bear bile is used to treat numerous conditions, including heart problems, liver diseases and diabetes. It is said to dispel "pathogenic heat" and detoxify.
In the old days, the company said, bears were killed for their gallbladders. In the 1980s, bears were kept in small cages where they could barely move and had a plastic tube permanently implanted into the gallbladder.
"Today we've found a new way, a painless one for the bears," said Zhou Ronghan, a professor at the China Pharmaceutical University and one of the invited visitors.
"Bile is a secretion, just like breast milk. Would the mother feel pain when she is breastfeeding? I don't know whether the bears are in pain, but it looks like they are quite comfortable."
Bear bile is big business. The Beijing Times highlighted Shanghai-based Kaibao Pharmaceutical Co Ltd as the country's biggest buyer of bear bile powder.
Kaibao's stock exchange filings showed that more than 97 percent of the company's revenue comes from manufacturing an injection solution containing bile which is used to treat flu.
Kaibao declined requests for interviews yesterday.
However, visitors had to apply for entry in advance and at least one person, a spokesman for Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation (AAF), was turned away at the gate.
Zhang Xiaohai had to stay outside the base because, according to Guizhentang, "AAF didn't obey the application process."
The company's farm in Hui'an County, Quanzhou City, is the largest bear base in south China with more than 600 black bears. Their value to the company is around 200 million yuan (US$31.8 million) a year.
But the company has expansion plans and earlier this month announced it would be seeking an IPO (initial public offering) to raise cash by selling shares.
Yesterday, a number of celebrities joined animal welfare activists to sign a letter to the China Securities Regulatory Commission protesting the IPO plan, including former NBA star Yao Ming, TV host Yang Lan and Olympic champion skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo.
Visitors who were allowed in to the bear base yesterday were shown three areas - an extraction zone, breeding zone and free-range zone.
Easier to extract
In the extraction zone they saw around 300 adult black bears, two to a cage. The breeding zone is for newborns, while the free-range zone has facilities such as swings and horizontal bars for bears under three.
The adults give bile twice a day, at 6am and 5pm, because bile is easier to extract when they are being fed.
A staff worker was seen disinfecting a surgical cut in the bear's abdomen, and inserting a 12-centimeter tube. The bile flowed out before he removed the tube and disinfected the cut again. Each bear can produce up to 2,000 milliliters every day.
The whole process took about 30 seconds, during which the bear was consuming liquid food and remained quiet. The company said the procedure was "healthy, sustainable and painless."
"If without proper extraction, the bile would be wasted anyhow. The bile we collect is less than 10 percent of the total, which causes no harm to the bear," it said.
The bears are home-bred, not wild animals.
"Wild black bears can live about 30 years, but our bears in the base can live up to 45 years," Zhang Zhiyun, a Guizhentang board member, told visitors. "We never anesthetize the bears before the extraction," he said. "During the past 10 years, the death rate of bears in the base is zero."
AAF, however, says that 99 percent of bears used for bile collection have gallbladder infections and about 22 percent have gallbladder stones as large as 7 to 8 centimeters. Other diseases included kidney ailments and cardiovascular problems.
Liver cancer
Of the 277 bears AAF had rescued since 2000, 121 had died with 35 percent of them from liver cancer, a high incidence rate, AAF's senior veterinarian Monica Bando said at a press conference in Beijing earlier this week.
Zhang Xiaohai said yesterday: "It's so ridiculous to say 'painless extraction.' Would you feel pain if I cut with a knife on your gallbladder?"
In traditional Chinese medicine, bear bile is used to treat numerous conditions, including heart problems, liver diseases and diabetes. It is said to dispel "pathogenic heat" and detoxify.
In the old days, the company said, bears were killed for their gallbladders. In the 1980s, bears were kept in small cages where they could barely move and had a plastic tube permanently implanted into the gallbladder.
"Today we've found a new way, a painless one for the bears," said Zhou Ronghan, a professor at the China Pharmaceutical University and one of the invited visitors.
"Bile is a secretion, just like breast milk. Would the mother feel pain when she is breastfeeding? I don't know whether the bears are in pain, but it looks like they are quite comfortable."
Bear bile is big business. The Beijing Times highlighted Shanghai-based Kaibao Pharmaceutical Co Ltd as the country's biggest buyer of bear bile powder.
Kaibao's stock exchange filings showed that more than 97 percent of the company's revenue comes from manufacturing an injection solution containing bile which is used to treat flu.
Kaibao declined requests for interviews yesterday.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
