VIETNAM -- The Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) has urged the Vietnamese government to confiscate 24 endangered moon bears (Asiatic black bears) found in a recent police raid on a bear farm in the popular tourist area of Ha Long Bay.

AAF Vietnam director Tuan Bendixsen called the raid at Dai Yen outside Ha Long City and the detention of seven people at the illegal operation “initially encouraging”. But “it’s almost three weeks since the arrests, still no one has been charged and nothing has been done to confiscate the bears. If the Vietnamese government is serious about ending bear-bile farming, it must act immediately to ensure these 24 bears are confiscated and transferred to us so our vets and bear managers can begin to repair the damage inflicted by ruthless farmers.”

The raid caught the farmers “red-handed” extracting and selling bear bile to Korean tourists. Five workers and two South Koreans were taken into custody for questioning. Bile-extraction gear and more than 200 vials of bile were confiscated. Among 81 bears at the farm, 24 lacked the proof of origin and microchips required by law.

The time has come for the authorities to listen to the international community and many of its own people in recognition that the bear-bile trade damages Vietnam’s global image. Bear-bile farming has been illegal in Vietnam since 1992, but about 4,000 bears remain trapped on farms. Bile extraction continues and more bears are trapped from the wild. Enforcement of the laws has been limited.

For the bears, bile extraction inflicts extreme pain. In Vietnam, they’re drugged, restrained by ropes and jabbed with four-inch needles until gall bladders are found. Then pumps extract bile.

In 2007, AAF investigators alerted the authorities to illegal activities at farms in the Ha Long Bay area. Undercover film footage and photos proved that bear bile was still extracted and sold to tourists.

The farms profit from illegal extraction and sale of the bile, used in traditional medicine. A police report says the raided farm attracted 30-40 tour groups a month.

Four years ago, the AAF signed a pact with the government to care for 200 bears at a Vietnam Moon Bear Rescue Centre, now home to 30 bears but with capacity for 100 more. That sanctuary warrants full utilization.


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