Captive Bears in Human–Animal Welfare Conflict: A Case Study of Bile Extraction on Asia’s Bear Farms |
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Authors: | Ryunosuke Kikuchi |
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Institution: | (1) Escola Superior Agr?ria, Instituto Polit?cnico de Coimbra, Bencanta, 3040 Coimbra, Portugal;(2) Present address: Department of Environmental Solution, Seta Campus, Ryukoku University, Ohtsu 520-2194, Japan |
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Abstract: | Bear bile has long been used in the Asian traditional pharmacopoeia. Bear farming first started in China ~30 years ago in
terms of reducing the number of poached bears and ensuring the supply of bear bile. Approximately 13,000 bears are today captivated
on Asia’s bear farms: their teeth are broken and the claws are also pulled out for the sake of human safety; the bears are
imprisoned in squeeze cages for years; and a catheter is daily inserted into a bear’s gall bladder or a tube is implanted
inside its body in order to collect the dripped bile—captive bears moan in severe pain whenever the bile is extracted. When
the bears cannot produce sufficient bile, they are often left to die of starvation. It must be impossible to justify the bile
extraction from living bears because (1) medicinal/herbal alternatives are similar to bear bile; (2) there is no evidence
to suggest that bear farming has any beneficial effects on wild bear populations; and (3) ethical problems lie not only in
the painful bile extraction but also the whole lifecycle of captive bears. In conclusion, human welfare (health care) based
on traditional medicine is upheld by sacrificing bear welfare. Since a trial calculation suggests that it is economically
unfeasible to keep a proper balance between bear welfare and the traditional pharmacopeia, the cultivation of herbal alternatives
seems to be a possible solution to phase out bear faming and maintain the practice of traditional medicine in Asia. |
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