At the sanctuary for Asiatic black bears or moon bears in Chengdu, Sichuan, province, a convoy of trucks arrives. The vets, mostly western, and the local staff members wait to offload the bears in the cages. It’s a long and delicate process that takes most of the day. The bears are nervous, many are in great pain, and this is a very new environment for them. They’ve come from a bear bile farm. Some may need medication to calm them down. All will later be anaesthetised for health checks.
On that day in Chengdu, the vets searched for the most acute cases first. As a journalist, I thought this would be a positive story of “Bubbles”, “George” or “Emily” finding a new home after years of torture. But the first bear had an abdomen so swollen that the pus and infected bile gushed out as they opened him up. And he was euthanized on the table in front of us. He wasn’t the only one.
For the bears that are rescued and survive a sanctuary awaits them in Chengdu, set up in 2000. Back then “Andrew” was the first bear of 60 to arrive. Another sanctuary has been set up more recently in Vietnam, where the bears can learn to forage again, play, and perhaps forget some of the years-long psychological and physical trauma of being prone in a cage barely bigger than their bodies.
Video: How Jill Robinson began her battle to end the bear bile trade