PHOTOS: 10,000 Bears Are Being Tortured for Their Bile in China
We’ve heard of the Indonesian death zoo where animals go to die, but this kind of farm is something we never knew existed.
Bile farms throughout Asia — in countries like China, North Korea, South Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar — keep Asiatic black bears in “extraction cages” where their bile (fluid produced by the liver that helps break down fatty foods) is then harvested to be used for homeopathic medicine.
According to ViralNova, in China alone there are 10,000 bears kept in bile farms. They’re kept in small cages, barely big enough for them to move in, also referred to as “crush cages.”
Bears’ bile is collected in three ways. The first is through tubes implanted through the abdomen and into the gall bladder.
The second, catheterization, involves putting a hollow steel tube through the bear’s abdomen.
The third is the “free drip” method, in which a permanent hole is made in the bear’s abdomen and gall bladder from which bile drips out freely.
Bile bears live to be about 5, while their wild counterparts live as long as 30 to 35 years.
Read more at http://www.ryot.org/photos-10000-bears-are-being-tortured-for-their-bile-in-china/656261#ZSXlAULsgi8zSQv4.99
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