Bear Rescue Center Vietnam

This bear rescue center is about an hour outside Hanoi. The center has moon bears and sun bears - both species kept on bile farms in Vietnam and China. A couple of bears at the center were missing arms and/or were blind due to the conditions they were kept in before their arrival.





Moon bears are the most common bear used in traditional medicine. According to AnimalsAsia moon bears (Asiatic black bears) extend from Iran to Japan and across South East Asia, where they live at high altitudes. It is estimated that there are as few as 25,000 left in the wild worldwide.



In a battery bear farm, a latex catheter is implanted into the bear's abdomen and gall bladder, and 10-20 ml of bile is extracted from the bear twice daily. Bear bile is believed to be effective for patients with liver and gall bladder illnesses, but ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), the active therapeutic substance in bear bile is commercially available from slaughter houses.

Images © Daniel Allen

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