Bears are starving to death, being kept in horrifying conditions, are ill treated and lack medical care on bile farms in Ha Long City, Animals Asia says.
An investigation by Animals Asia Organisation has found bears kept in shocking conditions.
Its investigators, assisted by the local Forestry Protection Department, gained access to the bile farms in late November 2014 following reports of plummeting bear numbers and bear deaths.
Emaciated, starving bears, many with open wounds and missing limbs were seen by Animals Asia veterinary staff at Cau Trang Bear Farm, one of three farms still operating in the otherwise popular tourist city.
The farm was found to have 27 bears in captivity.
Local officials say bear numbers on farms around Halong Bay have dropped dramatically, from 280 in 2007 to 49.
Flanked by government officials and a police guard, an Animals Asia veterinarian and a nurse visually inspected all 49 bears on three separate farms.
But it was the state of the bears at Cau Trang Bear Farm, just minutes from Halong City’s famous waterfront, which caused most concern, with veterinary staff overwhelmed by the desperate state of the animals they found.
Animals Asia Senior Vet, Joost Philippa, has compiled a report which reveals nearly 20 percent of bears were visibly “emaciated”; 37 percent had visibly broken teeth, but many of the remainder could not be properly examined.
The report also says open wounds were observed on nearly three-quarters of bears; nearly 20 percent were missing at least one limb; and all the bears had footpad hyperkeratosis, or dry, cracked and painful paws from standing on bars.
Some had been caged and subjected to bile extraction for decades. Almost all the bears were expected to have suffered internal injuries that will likely require surgical intervention to remove diseased and damaged gall bladders.
“It was a shocking scene,” Animals Asia Vietnam director Tuan Bendixsen said.
“We are well used to the horrors of bear bile farming, but we were shaken. The report makes it clear that five emaciated bears are fighting for their lives.”
The inspection was the first time the farms, situated near Vietnam’s most iconic tourist site, have been forced to open to independent observers.
Despite reports to the contrary, they are still receiving customers, though the reduction in bear numbers is a clear sign that business is plummeting.
Animals Asia has asked the Quang Ninh Forest Protection Department and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to hand the bears over to Animals Asia for care and rehabilitation at its nearby Tam Dao bear sanctuary.
The organisation has sent an open letter to Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung requesting the government step in and confiscate the remaining 23 bears at Cau Trang Bear Farm and hand them over to Animals Asia for urgent medical care after four starved to death in early January.
It is calling for signatures from the public to the open letter to the Prime Minister at their website: http://ift.tt/1C9IEnU
Đăng ký: VietNam News
