Mr Liu Xiaoming, Chinese Ambassador To The United Kingdom: Stop Torturing Bears: End All Bear Bile Farming In China
When the bears outlive their productive bile-producing years (at approximately 10 years old), they are slaughtered and harvested for their other parts.
To facilitate the bile extraction process, the bears are commonly kept in cages known as extraction or crush cages. These measure approximately 79 cm x 130 cm x 200 cm. Because the bears weigh between 50 to 120 kilograms, these cages prevent the bears from being able to stand upright, or in some cases, restrict the bear's movements even more.
Farmed bile bears are often malnourished and in poor health, living to an average age of five years; healthy captive bears can live until age 35 and wild bears live to 25-30 years. If the bears live past age five, they are most often killed around age 10, since by then their productivity usually drops off. They are then sold for their meat, fur, paws, and gall bladders.
Farmed bile bears can suffer from a variety of physical ailments which include loss of hair, malnutrition, stunted growth, muscle mass loss, and often have their teeth and claws extracted.
Living for 10–12 years under such circumstances results in severe mental stress and muscle atrophy. World Animal Protection sent researchers to 11 bile farms. They reported seeing bears moaning, banging their heads against their cages, and chewing their own paws.
Reports on the efficacy of bile products are mixed. It has been stated "These products have absolutely no benefit to health and "Scientists have scrutinized the health effects of bear bile but have come to no definitive conclusions”.
World Animal Protection sent researchers to 11 bile farms. They reported seeing bears moaning, banging their heads against their cages, and chewing their own paws.
Reports on the efficacy of bile products are mixed. It has been stated "These products have absolutely no benefit to health and "Scientists have scrutinized the health effects of bear bile but have come to no definitive conclusions”.