BEARING WITNESS
Monthly Spotlight

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Bearing Witness focuses on the plight of individual animals. Our mission reminds that a species is made up of a multitude of individuals, each unique and integral to a web of relationships. While many are rescued, millions remain fated to suffer without relief or recognition. Here we pay tribute to these valiant heroes. With your help, it may be possible to make the remainder of their lives peaceful and filled with respect and care.

Rupert, moon bear

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This month we Bear Witness to Rupert, a moon bear living in the AnimalsAsia Foundation sanctuary in Sichuan, China. Bears such as Rupert are captured and caged to extract bile from their gall bladders for use in human medicine.

In 1993, when AnimalsAsia founder and director Jill Robinson, MBE first witnessed bears on a bile farm, her horror at their fate compelled her to establish an effort to save and rescue bears.

By removing bears from their cages and closing farms, AnimalsAsia has saved hundreds of bears. However, some who are rescued cannot recover. The physical and psychological suffering and deprivation has been too great. The scars of trauma run deep and violence leaves a legacy in the minds and bodies of its victims. Dame Daphne Sheldrick, founder of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust that has rescued scores of orphaned elephants, reminds us that elephants and other animals “who once trusted and loved humans may not be quite so accommodating after having been ‘told about the experience of others at the hands of humans.” [1]

AnimalsAsia’s Jill Robinson describes her encounter with one bear, Chengdu Truth, who succumbed to a shocking list of chronic ailments shortly after his arrival at the sanctuary:

And all I can remember is that this bear looked at us with such hatred in his eyes, not understanding that he was looking at a species that loved him, respected him and wanted to help him. To him, he was looking at a species that had only ever hurt him and used him as a machine.

Others, like Rupert, survive and live to learn that not all people cause harm.

Changing human culture is never easy. Indeed, it is accepted cultural customs that cause most of human caused suffering of animals. Many of the rituals that have provided us with comfort, even joy, in childhood, are revealed to be based on the suffering and death of other species: rodeos, eating turkey at Thanksgiving, medications used for human health, frog and turtle races, 4-H and country fairs, caged birds as pets, and many others.

Preventing suffering and cruelty to animals first requires becoming aware that animals have the capacity to suffer comparable to humans. Then comes the will to act and change how we live. AnimalsAsia has done just that by starting a cultural revolution to stop violence towards bears. Jill Robinson and her team have worked assiduously with the Chinese government building trust and encouraging the use of herbal remedies in place of bear bile. In her words,

Despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges we face, we drive ourselves to overcome them, always remaining committed to our cause. The solutions that we strive for are never for the short term and nor is our commitment. We will stay on course and never waiver for as long as it takes. In doing so, we accept the risks and uncertainty associated with our line of work.

Rupert is one of many who benefits from this dedication. Jill recounts his story in the following paragraphs:

Rupert's Story

"Rupert bear – a much-loved cartoon character in the UK since the 1920s and the name of one of our ursine family members in Chengdu, China. Rupert arrived at our rescue center in October 2000 after being caged for at least 10 years on a bear farm in Sichuan Province and milked for his bile through a "fistula"–or hole–gouged into his abdomen and gall bladder.

"Long touted by the farmers and endorsed by the Chinese Government as the most efficient, painless technique of bile extraction, Rupert's fistula proved that this most lauded method was, in fact, equally invasive and damaging as the crude metal catheters previously inserted into the gall bladders of these unfortunate bears.

"Rupert has brain damage. The problem originating, so our vets believe, from the bacteria that traveled from the infected fistula site up to his brain. He is one of the "official" number of over 7,000 Asiatic black bears (or moon bears, after the creamy lemon crescent on their chests) farmed across China and, like them all, a victim of unconscionable cruelty and greed.

"Bear farming began in China in the early1980s when the government endorsed a practice they believed would save wild bears from being killed for their “bags of liquid gold”–whole gall bladders. That well-intentioned initiative was deeply flawed after bear farming boomed–and saw farmers continuing to take bears from the wild to replenish their stock, and also saw consumers preferring the "real thing" and persisting in their demand for the wild-caught bile of poached bears.

"In Vietnam, despite bear farming being an illegal trade, some 4,000 moon bears (and some sun bears) remain caged on farms across the country, while their bile is extracted and sold on the black market to dedicated consumers, predominantly from Korea.

"Battling against this practice, in a campaign to end bear farming in both China and Vietnam, AnimalsAsia team members have been working in China since the early 1990s and have welcomed 266 rescued bears to our sanctuary in Chengdu, and over 50 bears to our sanctuary in Tam Dao National Park, near Hanoi.

"Such is the extent of the damage from the crude surgery and techniques of bile extraction, that all the farmed bear require the removal of their chronically inflamed and infected gall bladders. In China, the bears are often deliberately abused by having their teeth cut back to gum level (exposing pulp and nerves) and their paw tips hacked away to stop the claws from growing – thus painfully rendering them less dangerous to milk of their bile.

"Many of the bears grow into the bars of their cages, which hold them immobile for anything up to 22 years. They suffer psychologically too, and many have open wounds and scars on their heads from engaging in miserable, self-mutilating, stereotypic behaviour, such as repeatedly banging their foreheads against the bars as a way to dissociate from pain and trauma. The bears will also often chew on the bars of the cage, breaking their teeth in the process–another agonising impact of bear farming is endured.

"The mortality rate on the farms is high and most of the bears dying at our sanctuaries are eventually losing their lives to liver cancer. The numbers are too high to be coincidence. Every rescued bear’s gall bladder is contaminated and our vets have found blood, urine, faeces, pus and cancer cells in the bile.

"Yet bear farming continues–legally and illegally–even while eminent doctors of traditional medicine object to the promotion of bear bile and emphasise that the mental and physical harm towards this endangered species cannot be in harmony with nature, as Chinese medicine dictates.

"But our rescue continues too, and along the way we are gathering crucial evidence against an industry so unnecessary and cruel.

"Rupert is one of the lucky bears. A sluggish male, who often walks in small circular patterns, and does nothing faster than a snail, Rupert is as gentle and as friendly as they come. Enjoying his life with us for nearly 10 years, Rupert was unsuitable for release into an enclosure with electric fencing because his damaged brain neglected to remind him that it shouldn't be touched. Ten times or more in a day he would touch the fence and reel back from its stinging zap until we realised that an enclosure with a wall would be more suitable for this bear of little brain.

"And so it was that Rupert had his very own special-care area where he was gradually introduced to an elderly female called Franzi who suffered from a variety of health problems including poor heart and lungs, and couldn't stand the presence of other bears. After ignoring him for months–apart from placing a well-aimed thwack on his nose if he came too close–she finally began to tolerate his presence, until a memorable and very cold day in spring, which saw her snuggled up next to him, keeping herself warm.

"From then it was a match made in heaven. Crocodile man Steve Irwin (rest in peace) had memorably called her a "hot little tart" when he saw her happily pottering around in the garden during his visit. His description turned out to be perfect, and she and Rupert had years of happiness together until Franzi's tiny disabled body gave out and we sadly had to put her to sleep last year.

Today, Rupert continues to enjoy his "special care garden" which comes and goes with new bear neighbors needing that extra little dose of tender loving care, before they return to their permanent enclosure. One day, hopefully soon, another bear will come along to give Rupert that special friendship into his twilight years.

"For now, if a quiet, plodding bear arrives with us from the farms, we'll often say he, or she, is a bit "Ruperty" and everyone will understand what it means. Just saying his name makes us smile–our Rupert bear, a kind and gentle soul so forgiving and friendly, and so deserving of his days in the sun."

All photo credits and copyright: AnimalsAsia Foundation

References Cited

[1] Sheldrick, Daphne. (2008). The Rearing and Rehabilitation of Orphaned African Elephant Calves in Kenya. In Forthman, D.L., Kane, L.F., Hancocks, D., Waldau, P.F. ( Eds.), An elephant in the room: The science and well being of elephants in captivity. North Grafton, MA: Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine’s Center for Animals and Public Policy.

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