Bear bile industry is thriving despite pandemic risks
Our new report reveals the shocking scale of the bear bile industry and its connections to bear poaching in Canada.
Our report, Cruel Cures, examines the billion-dollar industry behind bear bile production, it’s drivers, and the cruelty bears endure because of this industry.
A threat to animals and people
Right now, there are approximately 24,000 bears caged and farmed for their bile to supply traditional medicine markets across Asia - in China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Lao PDR and South Korea.
This should ring alarm bells, not only for the extreme animal cruelty inherent to this industry, but also because almost 75% of emerging infectious diseases affecting human health are zoonotic, meaning they originate in wildlife. Collectively, these diseases cause over two million human deaths annually, the latest COVID-19 pandemic not included.
A life of torture for bears
Bear bile is extracted from live, suffering bears, and is one of the most extreme forms of animal abuse in the world. The bears are mostly bred in captivity, trapped in small, barren cages in factory farm style conditions for the duration of their lives.
They suffer unthinkable traumas on a regular basis. Most commonly, their bile is drained from their gallbladder using a metal tube through a surgically created opening in the bear’s abdomen. This intense, agonizing process causes bears such great pain that they groan and convulse throughout.
Bears poached from the wild for the bear bile industry
Despite captive breeding practices, bears are still hunted for their gallbladders. Depletion of wild Asiatic black bears populations has resulted in bears being hunted for gallbladders in Canada, the US, Russia and Japan.
Bear gallbladders and bear bile have been trafficked in Canada for decades and there is concern that the promotion of bear bile as a COVID-19 cure will increase the illegal trade.
Canada’s role in the bear bile trade
World Animal Protection investigators have come across illegal bear bile products, offered for sale in shops in Toronto, also, there is evidence that products are being exported to countries in Asia. Examples include the conviction of five people for trafficking bear parts, including gall bladder, from Saskatchewan to Toronto in February 2020. And in 2016 charges were laid to a person in British Columbia for trafficking bear gall bladders.
While the trade in gallbladder is illegal in many parts of Canada, this is not the case in all provinces and territories. Regulations pertaining to the harvesting, possession and trade of gallbladder and bear bile varies greatly across the country.
Bear bile trade in Canada and our G20 campaign
As part of our G20 campaign, we are calling on the Canadian government to bring this issue to the G20 and take action nationally. We are asking the Federal Canadian government to:
- Curb the legal and illegal domestic trade in wild animals and derivatives.
- Work with provinces and territories to mitigate risks to public health, animal welfare and our natural environment inherent to the keeping and trade of wild animals and derivatives.
- Harmonize and strengthen regulations to drastically reduce captive breeding, transport and the physical and online trade in wild animals and derivatives.
Read the full report “Cruel cures: The industry behind bear bile production and how to end it”.