Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bile Bears

This episode is based on an odd, obscure news item that became even more odd and disturbing the more I read about it.



Now you're probably thinking that these bears were rescued from the bear bile farm because such cruelty is illegal. You would be wrong. Bear bile farms are perfectly legal in China. In fact, there are between 7,000 to 10,000 bears in legal Chinese bear bile farms. They are kept in tiny veal-pen-like cages where they can't move, with painful, infected open holes or tubes in their abdomens for the bile to drip out. They go crazy rubbing their heads against the bars and chewing their paws. Then they die of liver cancer.

But get this. The bear bile farms were created to save bears -- to prevent the poaching of wild bears for their bile. But wild bears are still poached because people think the "wild bile" is better than the "farm-raised" bile. And the active ingredient can be made in a lab without even touching a bear. People are funny.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everyone knows that the free-range organic bear bile is better than the farmed stuff, just like salmon.... Actually, I had never heard of this -- I am constantly amazed at how cruel and inhumane humans can be.

Jeremy said...

Disgusting bevahiour. Absolutely appalling.

On a lighter note, I think you should change the tag for Deadpan, Inc to "You can't argue with that logic" is honor of the last words of the guy on several movies. That's the best, I always laugh when he says it, even if I didn't laugh at the rest of the movie.