How Much is Too Much Pain to Bear? | Mickey Z.

[Tace]

Photo credit: Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

Jan. 25, 2014

“As we go on with our lives, we tend to forget that the jails and the hospitals and the madhouses and the graveyards are packed.”

- Charles Bukowski

I’m pretty sure Buk was using the word “forget” with a characteristic wink, maybe even a sneer. After all, in order to “go on with our lives,” there’s plenty we need to forget. In fact, the list gets longer each and every minute of each and every day.

For example: Bear farms.

While bear farms have been a brutal reality for way too long, I recall a dramatic story that shot across the interwebs a few years back -- spawning headlines like this: “The ultimate sacrifice: Mother bear kills her cub and then herself to save her from a life of torture.”

We may never be able to fully verify all the specifics, but a little context helps:

In countries like China, Korea, and Vietnam, the Moon bear is “farmed” for its bile, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine for a variety of conditions. As detailed by Ari Solomon at Huffington Post, Moon bears are kept imprisoned in dark basements inside cages roughly the size of their bodies. “Picture a coffin made of bars -- a living coffin,” he wrote. “The bears never see sunlight and cannot move.”

more

http://worldnewstrust.com/how-much-is-too-much-pain-to-bear-mickey-z