Vietnamese Government to Phase out Bear Farming

Vietnamese Government to Phase out Bear Farming

3/10/2005 7:00:00 AM

To: National and International desks

Contact: Susan Sherwin of WSPA, 508-879-8350 ext. 21

BOSTON, March 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has reached a landmark agreement with the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to establish a national task force for the phasing out of the practice of farming bears for their gall bile.

The agreement was hammered out during talks with MARD in Hanoi at the end of February and outlines comprehensive government plans to end the practice of bear farming via a multi-tiered strategy of registering and microchipping all captive bears, phasing out the breeding of bears held on farms, and strengthening the ban on taking bears from the wild. WSPA will work with MARD to phase out bear farms and support the future development of a bear rescue center in Cat Tien National Park.

WSPA Campaigns Director Leah Garcés said, "WSPA congratulates the Vietnamese Government on this positive step and looks forward to assisting in the implementation of this plan. This could be the beginning of the end of the bear farming industry, as the only other countries that still tolerate this form of cruelty are China and Korea."

Mr. Ha Cong Tuan, director of the Forest Protection Department, said, "The Vietnamese Forest Protection Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is committed to the phasing out of bears in captivity in Vietnam and we are delighted to be working in collaboration with WSPA to implement this important project".

Many thousands of bears languish in hundreds of farms across China, Korea and Vietnam to meet the demand for bear bile, much of which is illegally exported in the form of traditional medicines, shampoo and wine. Bear bile is believed to have a number of therapeutic properties in traditional medicines but many alternatives exist, making bear farming unnecessary.

Bears are typically confined in tiny individual cages, often unable to stand upright or turn around, for many years. There are various methods of bile extraction, ranging from the insertion of steel catheters into the abdomen to the use of needles to drain bile from the gall bladder. WSPA estimates that up to 3,000 bears are kept in farms in Vietnam.

In March 2002, after intense lobbying by WSPA, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted for protection measures for all species of bears, with the intention of controlling the escalating trade in bear body parts used in traditional medicine. WSPA, an international charity recognized by the United Nations and representing nearly 500 member societies in over 120 countries worldwide, continues to lobby against this illegal trade and expose the cruelty of bear farming.

Interviews, broadcast quality footage and photographs of bear bile farming available upon request. Please contact: Susan Sherwin, WSPA USA, 508-879-8350 ext. 21. Web: http://www.wspa-international.org and http://www.wspa-usa.org

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