A brown bear’s lifespan is only approximately 30 years, so when Animals Asia staff learned that Oliver, rescued from a bear bile farm in China, had spent as many years in cages, they were shocked to say the least. The miracle of Oliver is that after surviving decades of being painfully farmed for his bile, he is now enjoying a happy, peaceful, and playful life at Animals Asia’s China Bear Rescue Center, a beautiful and fun-filled sanctuary for bears in Chengdu.
Oliver is one of ten bears that were rescued in April 2010 from a bile farm in Shandong Province, China. Like the other bears at the farm, when Animals Asia staff arrived, they discovered Oliver suffering from just having had a “full metal jacket” removed from his body. The jackets had kept dirty and painful latex catheters in place in the bears’ gall bladders. Knowing the jackets were against regulations, the farmer had ripped them off prior to the arrival of Animals Asia’s staff, causing the bears even more pain and suffering. When staff met the bears, they found them with scars around their bodies and moaning in pain.
Oliver’s story of incarceration is one that is very sad but true for thousands of bears across China who live in tiny cages while having their bile drained through catheters or holes in their abdomens. The bile is used in traditional Asian medicine despite the existence of many herbal and synthetic alternatives...Continue reading...
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