Making Me Sick - Bear Bile is Torture

This is one of the saddest and most stories I've ever read or had to post.  But it's traumatized me so much that I'm sitting at my desk at work crying my eyes out over the pain, fear and desperation that these poor animals endure in the torture that is a bear bile farm.

Asiatic "moon" bears are kept in tiny cages, mainly in China and Vietnam, and they stick a metal tube into their stomachs or gall bladders and take their bile daily.

The process is so horribly painful that the bears are fitted with an iron vest, as they often try to kill themselves by hitting their stomach as they are unable to bear the pain.

The cages are so small they are crushed to near death.

But a media source in China just released the following heartbreaking story:

The Chinese media has reported on an extraordinary account of a mother bear saving her cub from a life of torture by strangling it and then killing itself.



The bears were kept in a farm located in a remote area in the North-West of China. The bears on the farm had their gall bladders milked daily for 'bear bile,' which is used as a remedy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).


It was reported that the bears are kept in tiny cages known as 'crush cages', as the bears have no room to manoeuvre and are literally crushed.


The bile is harvested by making a permanent hole or fistula in the bears' abdomen and gall bladder.  As the hole is never closed, the animals are suspect to various infections and diseases including tumours, cancers and death from peritonitis.


A person who was on the farm in place of a friend witnessed the procedures and told Reminbao.com that they were inhumane.

The witness also claimed that a mother bear broke out its cage when it heard its cub howl in fear before a worker punctured its stomach to milk the bile.

The workers ran away in fear when they saw the mother bear rushing to its cub's side.


Unable to free the cub from its restraints, the mother hugged the cub and eventually strangled it.


It then dropped the cub and ran head-first into a wall, killing itself.


Many TCM practitioners have denounced the use of bear bile in their treatment as there are cheaper herbs and synthetics that can be used in its place.


Bear bile is traditionally used to remove 'heat' from the body as well as treat high fever, liver ailments and sore eyes.

I can't understand the horror and heartbreak of this story and have to denounce the use of animals, all animals, as often as I can.  The images from these "farms" is beyond horrible.

More than 12,000 bears are currently suffering in these cruel conditions in Asia’s bear farms.  The World Society for the Protection of Animals is leading the fight against these farms.   If you can donate or speak out, it will help to shut these down sooner.

Consider the Birds

I've mentioned this before, but whenever you have extremes in weather it is so important to remember the local wildlife. If you have a yard, keep the brush around and the bushes and trees as full as you can. These sheltered areas give birds and squirrels and chipmunks (and more) a place to hide and try and keep warm.

Even more important is to provide some fresh water and even some seed or crumbs if you can. We keep a low pan of water out for the local birds and are rewarded with visits of all kinds of cardinals, blue jays, crows, finches and more.



Last night we received our first snow - a sudden storm that dumped a lot of snow in a brief time. We saw birds picking up corn and chicken feed in the coop and made sure to spread some seed and fill up all the waters with fresh, non-icy water this morning.



Almost immediately we have seen flocks of birds come by to drink and eat.

We use the land, we can give back in this small measure to help ensure they survive.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

As a part of having the chickens and having their food and the compost pile all be out in the yard, we get a variety of "visitors" who like to come out and snack on some of the bounty that is laid out each day.

We get tons of songbirds for starters, but we also get squirrels, deer, geese and bunnies

And groundhogs.

Yes, these two little stinkers live in our backyard. I think, under our garage. I'm sure one day the garage is going to sink into the earth becasue of them. And no, we haven't tried catching them yet. I don't mind them that much.

They do have a tendency to sneak under the chicken wire which makes up the coop yard fence. Their fat butts have previously pushed up the wire to the point that Napoleon was able to slip out. We put wood posts all along the bottom of the fence but we still need to do this in the new coop yard annex.

This morning I heard Napoleon squawking up a storm and thought something like a hawk or something was in there trying to get him. When we ran down the stairs and out the door we found that it was one of the groundhogs trapped in the coop and trying to get out!

Usually the chickens don't mind them when they get in the coop. Maybe today he was eating too much and they weren't happy about it.

We scared him so he ran into the brush and, I'm assuming, found his way out.

I'm sure he'll be back though!