China Bear Rescue

This year AAF has promoted a campaign to urge the closing down of the 247 so-called "bile farms" where 6992 bears are kept prisoners in very small cages with a catheter stuck in their gall bladder to "milk" bile twice a day. About 7000 kg are extracted every twelve months. Chinese traditional medicine uses about 500 kg of bile a year to treat calculi and fever or as an aphrodisiac, while the remaining amount is used to produce shampoos, wine, eyewash and tonics. The bile squeezed out of bears could be easily replaced with vegetal or synthetic compounds, which are considered as effective even by Chinese traditional practitioners.