Vatic Note: Lately we have been coming across articles that are highlighting and exposing the underbelly of the world of animal cruelty in both food factory farms and now this in Chinese Medicine. After reading this one, it seemed time to bring this to the light of day and to discuss what we can do about it, if anything. This is a tough one.... so much where China is concerned is out of our hands. Boycotting their products is about the only thing we can do.... but having said that, now I understand why PETA does what it does and, rightly so. We were given dominion over the animals, but that did not mean abuse of that dominion by doing whatever profits us to do so at their suffering expense. Please read and listen to the video and decide for yourself. As for me, I am boycotting Chinese products and yes, believe it or not, I can actually get around buying anything labeled from "China".
Bile-Bear-Farm Horrors: Mother Bear Kills Cub and Then Itself
http://www.eutimes.net/2011/08/bile-bear-farm-horrors-mother-bear-kills-cub-and-then-itself/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheEuropeanUnionTimes+%28The+European+Union+Times%29
Posted by EU Times on Aug 15th, 2011
If the Sarah Mclachlan ASPCA ad for abused animals makes your heart sink, the idea of caged bears kept under inhumane conditions to have their gall bladders milked daily for use as a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) might bring you to tears.
Even more heart wrenching is a recent report of a mother bear killing her cub and herself to stop a life of continued torture and pain.
A bile farm worker in North-West China witnessed a mother bear break free from her cage and attempt to rescue her cub after hearing it cry out in fear, as a worker prepared to puncture its abdomen. Unable to free the cub from its restraints, the mother hugged the cub and eventually strangled it. It then dropped the cub and ran headfirst into a wall, killing itself.
Farm bears receive a permanent hole cut into their abdomens for their gall bladders to be milked regularly. The holes are never closed and the bears are often fitted with iron vests to prevent them from maiming or killing themselves in an attempt to stop their suffering. What’s more, the bears are kept in so-called “crush cages” which are the size of telephone booths with iron-bar floors. The bears often succumb to various infections and diseases including tumors, cancers and death from peritonitis.
Bear bile is used to treat high fever, liver ailments and sore eyes in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It has been reported that many TCM practitioners denounce the use of bear bile as there are cheaper herbs and synthetics that can be used in its place; yet, bile farms still thrive under little or no regulatory control.
Bears have been long known for intelligence comparable with that of higher primates and possess the largest brains relative to their size of any North American land mammal. They are highly evolved social animals, form hierarchies and structured relationships, use tools like sticks for scratching and throw rocks during play, and have been known to show self-awareness by covering their tracks when pursued by hunters and poachers.
I am no card-carrying member of PETA and realize humans are at the top of the food chain, and will by default use “lesser creatures” for our own selfish purposes, but as the more advanced and intelligent species, we have a moral obligation to treat these animals with compassion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UzZTevtRTNw
Chinese actor, martial artist, and filmmaker Jackie Chan is a passionate animal advocate and in collaboration with the World Society for the Protection of Animals, is working towards creating awareness for Asian bear farming. Lending support for WSPA or at least signing a petition is a small step towards preventing further cruelty, but even just a tiny bit of awareness can go a long way.
Source
The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
Bile-Bear-Farm Horrors: Mother Bear Kills Cub and Then Itself
http://www.eutimes.net/2011/08/bile-bear-farm-horrors-mother-bear-kills-cub-and-then-itself/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheEuropeanUnionTimes+%28The+European+Union+Times%29
Posted by EU Times on Aug 15th, 2011
Even more heart wrenching is a recent report of a mother bear killing her cub and herself to stop a life of continued torture and pain.
A bile farm worker in North-West China witnessed a mother bear break free from her cage and attempt to rescue her cub after hearing it cry out in fear, as a worker prepared to puncture its abdomen. Unable to free the cub from its restraints, the mother hugged the cub and eventually strangled it. It then dropped the cub and ran headfirst into a wall, killing itself.
Farm bears receive a permanent hole cut into their abdomens for their gall bladders to be milked regularly. The holes are never closed and the bears are often fitted with iron vests to prevent them from maiming or killing themselves in an attempt to stop their suffering. What’s more, the bears are kept in so-called “crush cages” which are the size of telephone booths with iron-bar floors. The bears often succumb to various infections and diseases including tumors, cancers and death from peritonitis.
Bear bile is used to treat high fever, liver ailments and sore eyes in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It has been reported that many TCM practitioners denounce the use of bear bile as there are cheaper herbs and synthetics that can be used in its place; yet, bile farms still thrive under little or no regulatory control.
Bears have been long known for intelligence comparable with that of higher primates and possess the largest brains relative to their size of any North American land mammal. They are highly evolved social animals, form hierarchies and structured relationships, use tools like sticks for scratching and throw rocks during play, and have been known to show self-awareness by covering their tracks when pursued by hunters and poachers.
I am no card-carrying member of PETA and realize humans are at the top of the food chain, and will by default use “lesser creatures” for our own selfish purposes, but as the more advanced and intelligent species, we have a moral obligation to treat these animals with compassion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UzZTevtRTNw
Chinese actor, martial artist, and filmmaker Jackie Chan is a passionate animal advocate and in collaboration with the World Society for the Protection of Animals, is working towards creating awareness for Asian bear farming. Lending support for WSPA or at least signing a petition is a small step towards preventing further cruelty, but even just a tiny bit of awareness can go a long way.
Source
The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
On November, 1st, 2010 in the late evening at 22.42 the British parliament becomes the witness of very strange performance of lord James of a baron Blekhitsky which essence was reduced to that he tried to inform members of chamber of lords the fact of existence of a certain strange organization which wishes to give the huge sum of money for restoration of economy of Great Britain and which it in the performance called as "Fund X".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slffv8EVoAA
We saw that before, but what does it have to do with the horrors the Chinese are visiting on the bears and what about the awareness that mother bear had to have in order to MAKE A DECISION TO KILL HER CHILD AND HERSELF???? Did you know animals had that kind of awareness?
ReplyDeleteIf so, does that mean they suffer even more than we had imagined??? Lots of questions came to mind when I read and saw this one. Imagine the happy faces on them when they do it to those less innocent such as ourselves. Remember, China's Premier was educated in Oxford, just like Clinton was and other bastard children of the banking elite.