The Bear Facts About Illegal Bear Bile in Vietnam

 

As reported a couple of months ago by Joongan Ilbo, many Koreans traveling to South East Asia, especially Vietnam, are indirectly involved in the illegal trade of bear parts.    “A Vietnamese politician named Nyuyen Dinh Xuan said in a letter that Korean businessmen and tourists are involved in illegal bear bile sales in Vietnam,” said Kim Won-tae, a senior deputy director of the ministry. “He requested that we instruct the Korean public to refrain from engaging in these illegal acts when they travel to Vietnam,” Kim said.

Well, Korea is mentioned once again in this  New York Times article about 19 rare Asiatic moon bears being rescued from an illegal farm in Vietnam.  These bears were milked for their bile. 

World Society for the Protection of Animals describes the farms and the procedures for extracting the bile, as does The Humane Society of the United States.  An excellent read with pictures and commentary about Vietnam bile milking in December 2009 is given on Terry Whittaker’s photo blog.  Also an article with more pictures including Korean posters.

It is interesting to note that in 2005 Vietnam made it illegal to milk bile, from the bear’s gall bladder and took steps to help eradicate this practice.   However, the practice continues.

“Last year, a farm in northern Vietnam was raided for selling bile to busloads of South Koreans, who watched it being extracted as part of their sightseeing tours. Some of the farms in Vietnam are owned by South Koreans and Taiwanese…. ‘They’re more organized and bigger. They’re run like a business now,’ said Tuan Bendixsen of Animals Asia Foundation in Vietnam, which rescued the bears this week in Vietnam. ‘It’s part of a package tour.”’

According to the article, bear bile products are smuggled into Chinatowns all over the world and in Japan, according to WSPA, 75% of the stores they visited sold bear bile products.  The next highest country was South Korea with 42%  and the United States and Canada each had 15%.

Perhaps equally interesting to note that, if Terry Whittaker is correct, it is illegal in South Korea to milk bile from bears.

What is this bile used for?  According to this article, bear bile has been used by the Chinese since at least 659 A.D., and is used as “a treatment for intestinal, liver and cardiac illnesses, parasite and bacterial infections. It is used as anti-allergenic, anti-spasmodic, tranquilizers, painkillers, poison antidotes, antihypertensive and anti-coughing agents. It is used to treat cancers, skin rashes, burns and fevers, to prevent swelling, etc. In summary, from head aches to hemorrhoides. But, contrary to what you may have heard, not as an aphrodisiac.”

The Cost:  What I found interesting is the controversy over the prices realized for bear gall bladders.  Quoting the same article:

“The value of bear galls is a point of much debate with extremely high prices being quoted. Examples are: “Tiny quantities of bile from the gall of endangered Asiatic black bears can be worth up to 18 times the price of gold in the retail markets of Asia.” And, “In South Korea a bear gallbladder could bring more than US$10,000 in 1994.” Comparisons have often been made to the drug trade in values, method of transport and the type of people involved.

However, more recent investigations have stated that in China “real” whole bear gall bladders were found for sale in the range of from US$1 to US$9 per gram.

In Nova Scotia, fur buyers are offering about $5 to $8 per gram and hoping to get $15 to $20 per gram on resale. It is important to note that a gall of less than 10 grams is of very little value. A larger gall of 20 grams or larger, is worth more per gram. Galls of Asian bears are apparently larger and a weight of 60 grams is often used whereas a 25 to 30 gram gall in North America is considered above average. As well, the gall of an Asian bear, regardless of size, is worth considerably more than the gall of a North American black bear.” 

This PDF File gives the prices of bear products in Singapore in 2001 and the Moon Bear Press give prices that are much lower than the “exaggerated price” of $10,000.  But, according to American Bear Association, bear gall bladders sell for $1,500 to $4,000 in Japan.  In this Los Angeles Times article,  Police Lt.  Kathy Ponting explains how she tracked down a San Diego man in December 2007 who was offering to buy bear gallbladders for $150 to $500 from hunters. He was planning to sell them for up to $4,000 in Vietnam.  The Endangered Species Handbook also gives $10,000 as the price of a gallbladder but notes in South Korea it can be as much as $15,000.  It also  gives several anecdotes of illegal bear harvesting and smuggling (many involving South Koreans) and the uses for bear parts.  Bear Necessity Korea also uses the 10,000 dollar figure (this site gives an excellent article on bear farms in Korea)

Who is the world’s worst smuggler and where are the biggest markets?

This Epoch Times article  notes that China and the United States are the biggest markets for illegally traded wildlife.  This January 2010 article by National Geographic gives the account of the arrest of the world’s most infamous and wanted wildlife smuggler, Wong Keng Liang – from Malaysia.  In 2001 he was facing 250 years in prison and a fine of 12.5 million dollars but through a plea bargain got off with a mere 71 months and 60,000 dollar fine and banned him from selling wildlife to anyone in the United States for three years.  He didn’t learn his lesson and now one can only speculate how many years he is facing in an American prison.

Picture is from Joongan Ilbo who got it from Education for Nature – Vietnam