Probe exposes trade in bear products
Animal welfare campaigners claimed yesterday to have exposed widespread trading in illegal bear products and urged the authorities to clamp down on the alleged law-breakers.
Presenting the results of a three-month undercover investigation into the practice, the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society said: 'The illegal trade continues because of us, consumers. We have the power to change things now.'
There was no comment on the claims from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, the agency responsible for enforcing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in the city-state. The agreement, which Singapore signed in 1986, bans trade in many rare animal products, including those from bears.
Spokesman for the group Paige Lim said a trio of campaigners posing as customers had visited and filmed at 68 traditional Chinese medicine shops between May and July. It is estimated that there are about 800 such shops in Singapore.
Ms Lim said almost three-quarters of those visited stocked products made from bears, usually gall bladders or pills made from gall bile. Most of the items were imported from China, where the domestic trade in bear products is not illegal, but their export is.
Some ethnic Chinese take bear products to treat fevers, haemorrhoids, conjunctivitis and liver disorders. The campaigners say the 'farming' of bile from live bears is cruel and threatens dwindling bear populations. Effective herbal alternatives exist, they say.
The activists' film showed shopkeepers offering bear products for sale and advising how to get the products through Customs checks.
'I don't display it [bear products] because the authorities might do a spot check,' one shopkeeper said. 'If you wish to take it regularly, I will get it for you.'
Ms Lim said the group had handed the names of shops allegedly stocking the products to the authorities.
Victor Watkins, director of the Libearty Campaign, run by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, said: 'No one has been looking at this trade until now. Action has to be taken very quickly.'
