Don't look away. Dr Katrina Warren wants us to know about this.

There are some things going on in the world that are unpleasant and distressing. Animal cruelty is one of those things but I feel it’s important to be educated about issues like black bear farming instead of looking away every time. Dr Katrina Warren is someone I know a little bit and admire a lot, particularly for her animal advocacy work. Currently, she’s been working with Animals Asia who rescue bears from this most brutal practice. I asked her to write this guest post for Mamamia so we could better understand what’s going on and how we can help.

Dr Katrina Warren writes..

“As a vet I thought I had seen some of the worst kind of animal suffering but nothing prepared me for what I would witness involving bear bile farming in Asia. Thousands of endangered Asiatic black bears are locked in tiny cages with holes carved into their abdomens so their bile can be extracted for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

A friend of mine was working with a charity called Animals Asia on a mission to free these bears.   When I saw the pictures, I was astounded. Surely this doesn’t happen in the 21^st Century?  I was soon to learn that it does…. and in massive proportions. There are 7,000 bears in China alone, another 4,000 in Vietnam and more in Korea.

Animals Asia invited me to their Moon Bear Rescue Centre in Sichuan Province, China.  Truth be told, I was a little apprehensive and afraid of what I might see. I remembered a quote I’d read from Albert Schweitzer, which could not have been more appropriate, “Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight”.

I arrived at Animals Asia’s sanctuary while they were about to rescue bears from a farm. I braced myself as I saw the bears in cages, stacked on top of each other arriving on trucks. The first thing that struck me was the fear in their eyes, which made me hang my head in shame. How could any human treat an animal in this manner? I saw pus oozing from their abdomens, I heard moans of pain and smelt the stench of sick animals as they were carried off the trucks.  And these were the lucky ones. Despite their horrific past, they were about to taste their new life of freedom, which at that moment came in pieces of fresh fruit.

I was invited to participate in the health checks on the new arrivals and saw some of the most terrible injuries – shattered teeth and infected gums from biting the bars out of sheer boredom and frustration, gaping wounds in their abdomen, claws yanked out to reduce their defenses, massively calloused paw pads from never walking on solid ground, scars on their heads from banging them repeatedly against the bars. That was just the surface – there was an inferno of internal diseases

from infected abdomens, liver cancers, and heart failure.

I stole some time to see the bears at the sanctuary who had been rescued a few years earlier. They were relaxing in their enclosures, climbing trees, resting in their hammocks and nibbling fruit…without a care in the world. They were beautiful in their black shiny coats with their large moon shaped yellow crescents, which earned them the name moon bears. It’s hard to imagine that they once had the same fear in their eyes.

I spent the next few days learning about bear farming and the bile trade. Bear bile has been used in Traditional Medicine for over 3000 years. Bears were caught in the wild, their whole gall bladders extracted for the bile. Bile has an active ingredient called UDCA, which has healing properties used for illnesses such as cancer. In an effort to protect the wild population, the governments introduced bear “farming” which only began in the 80’s. Thousands of bears are bred on farms and still caught wild, trapped in cages, catheters are jabbed into their abdomens and they are milked repeatedly. They are often starved so they produce more bile.

What bothers me most is that this practice is completely unnecessary and even frowned upon by many TCM doctors. There are over 50 herbal and synthetic alternatives, which are just as effective, easily accessible and inexpensive.

I’ve been Animals Asia’s Australian Ambassador since that first visit to China in 2005. I came back determined to tell people of their plight. I know there are issues closer to home that need attention but I believe this is a barbaric practice that we have the power to end.

The real heroes are the staff at Animals Asia fighting a very long battle to end this industry, negotiating with Vietnamese and Chinese Governments, shutting down farms, rescuing bears and giving them a life of freedom in their care while tirelessly promoting cruelty free alternatives. I am honored to support them in any way I can and reach out to you to do the same.

So I managed to sit still for just a few hours to appear in Animal Asia’s latest public service announcement about a beautiful bear I met in China, Franzi.

Unfortunately, Franzi died last year.  Even after the physical and psychological pain she was made to endure on a bear farm, she learnt to trust people again and spent seven wonderful years at the Moon Bear Rescue Centre dozing, grazing and just chilling out with other lucky bears before her little heart gave out.

Please join me in calling for an end to bear farming by writing a polite letter to the Chinese Embassy in Canberra chinaemb_au@mfa.gov.cn and by supporting the work of Animals Asia Foundation who have rescued 318 bears to date with hope of more soon.”