by Betsy Seeton

If you don't know these egregious acts of inhumanity are being perpetrated against bears, how will things ever change? That's the reason I post this stuff. I know it's easier not knowing about this hell on earth suffering but these animals deserve their cries to be heard.  The stories of abuse that bears endure -- sometimes for their entire 25 year life -- are beyond comprehension. The abuse is so outrageously painful for these bears that it leaves me both enraged and numb all at the same time.  

As of 2011, the estimated price of a bear gallbladder on the black market is $10,000 according to Andrew Revelos writing for Marine Corps Base Quantico - Quantico Sentry OnLine. Ounce for ounce, gallbladders have ranked as some of the highest commodities on the black market. 

STRAIGHT FROM FREETHEBEARS.ORG:
Since 1995 Free the Bears Fund has provided support to a wide range of projects across the globe; from the rehabilitation of orphaned bear cubs in the Russian Far East to surveying wild Spectacled bears in Ecuador. As Free the Bears has grown we have focused more intensely on the Sun bears and Asiatic black bears of South-east Asia and the Sloth bears of India. 

By creating partnerships that are tailored to each individual country and situation we have been able to support a wide range of projects in our six priority countries; Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Despite these countries being geographically close to one another, the threats to bears vary widely and as such our responses encompass a wide range of strategies including environmental awareness, sustainable livelihoods, increased enforcement and research and protection of wild bear populations.

 Our support ranges from direct intervention on-the-ground to providing much-needed funds to local organisations carrying out bear conservation work in line with our goals. To find out more about the various projects that we support, please select from the menu to the left. VISIT FREETHEBEARS.ORG

 From an interview with Mary Hutton by  Claudette Vaughan reported on the ABOLISTIONIST-ONLINE.COM:

 The Bear Paw Soup is considered a delicacy in Cambodia. Some bears are taken because the meat is tender. The cub again is taken from the wild, the mother most likely killed. The cubs are put in a cage. This is not a dish specific to Cambodian either. The Koreans, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Taiwanese all go and order their bowls of Bear Paw Soup. The paw is cut off and the stump is sealed in hot coals and on oil to stop the bleeding. That paw is served as a delicacy. It’s called “Braised Bear Paw Soup” served with onions and garlic and it can fetch around US$200-$300 dollars per serve.This has been stopped to a huge extent by a big advertising awareness campaign that we worked with the group “Wild Aid” who are up there as well. 70% of this has now been stopped. There was one restaurant that didn’t comply. He was closed down by the Mayor and threatened with if he serves anything like this again, including any exotic pieces such as tigers, he would not be allowed to reopen. Due to this initiate it’s not very often now that you see a bowl of bear paw soup around on a menu.

If that one bear still survives having it’s paw cut off slowly each paw is taken by other people. Not so much now, because the trade is dying out, but that poor bear will go on until all four paws have gone. The bear then immersed in a boiling hot vat of water because people like to see the bear and ensure the meat is fresh before eating him.

We have made such a fuss about the Cambodian Paw Soup issue however we also know that bears are farmed in Vietnam and are trapped in other sorts of ways. I can tell you it is very distressing. 

STRAIGHT FROM http://www.greenmuze.com/animals/wild/768-bear-bile-farming.html

 Posing as buyers and suppliers in the illegal wildlife trade, eco warriors have taken hidden cameras where some of the most heinous crimes against nature are taking place: on bear bile farms in China.

Other Earth saviors have packed unhidden cameras when they've gone on rescue missions to record the conditions of the bears they save and the ones they have to tragically leave behind. These are their photos, their stories, and the history of bear bile farming. READ FULL REPORT WITH MORE UNDERCOVER PHOTOS OF ABUSE

I urge each of you reading this to help in the campaign to end this abuse by passing along this link and other information from organizations dedicated to saving bears. Also sign petitions, write letters, and reach out in your own creative way. The thought of cutting off the paw of a bear for 'bear paw soup' leaves me so disillusioned by the humans on both ends of the supply/demand chain. Who would cage these beautiful animals for a lifetime to take bile from them? What kind of souls are doing these things? Who are you people??