Animal Asia Foundation

JILL Robinson - China WSPA
Victor Watkins - England
FAUNA FREE - Felicitas Barreto - Brasil

It's amazing that in the 20th century, when man has already gone to the Moon and computers are globalizing knowledge, still there are in China thousands of bears emprisoned in order to have their bile extracted
that, according to a long tradition of the chinese medicine, claiming to cure many  illnesses such as headache, kidney stones, cirrhosis, hangover and lately used to make shampoo and aphrodisiacs. There is very limited proof scientifically that any of this really works.
In the past, only the Emporer and his court used this substance. Nowadays, thousands of asians have access to the product. Its demand increased so much , that China is bringing bears in from many others countries to provide this market. From the 8 different species that they buy, 6 of them are endangered species.
In expanding their business, in 1995 they created hundreds of farms of bears, where over 10000 are kept emprisioned, layed down horizontally on their urine and feces which burns their skin. The cage is so small
that they cannot move themselves, not even to scratch.
With their paw they pull the food through a small opening in the cage.
When they're thirsty, these poor animals have to streach their tongue to reach some licks of water on the bars of the cage. They feel horrible pain and spend about 15 years in the same position deforming their bones. It means 15 years or 180 months or 5475 days or 131,400 hours or 78,844,000 minutes of continuous pain.
During the bile extraction , they put a tube entering the gall bladder and exiting out of the bears belly where a special mechanism sucks out the bile.The pain of these animals overtake all limits. They roar , they mutilate or kill themselves. The bears are drugged and then strapped with metal waistbands then are put into a cage with bars under pressure.
A medicine made in this way is POISON!! It reminds us of FRANKENSTEIN! To preserve the cultural reputation of chinese medicine, the authorities are considering closing the more recent farms when they
can declare an herb which can substitute for the bile. In this crucial moment of political changes that happened in China, what is going to happen with the promises made with the government about the bears freedom ? What will be the destiny of these animals?
But the recent changes in Hong Kong ownership in July of 1997, portend a possible stronger reaction against countries who interfere in China's political decisions or conservation of China. The IFAW, an english
 organization whose president is Prince Charles , has supported the idea of the closure of the bear farms belonging to the Chinese government.
International appeals did get the chinese government to close 2 of their farms in1993 Zhuhai and 1995 Huizhou.
We from Fauna Free are fighting together with national and  international organizations such as the IFAW - INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE, http://www.ifaw.org , in order to mobilize human beings who cannot sleep knowing that thousand of bears are suffering such an atrocity in every minute of their lives.All of us need to pass this information to as many societies and institutions we can. We need a global movement against these atrocities.
How long do we have to wait knowing that these bears are continue to suffer ?
The Bears can't wait anymore!
We have to get international help to maintain pressure on the Chinese government !
You who are sad with the reality of the bears of China who want to help but don't know how, contact us.
 Get as many signatures for the end of the bear farms as you can. We don't  want any money, we just need ACTION! If you want to help with money, you can. We have filmsand pictures which are available to the media and all people who are interested in our cause.

Best Regards
Felicitas B.Barreto
President of Fauna Free Group