Bear Gall Bile Market Threatens Earth’s Eight Bear Species
by Ted Williams
It is time to recognize the usefulness, if not the necessity, for national legislation uniformly prohibiting commercialization of bear viscera.
Bile extracted from bear gallbladders is an ancient and spectacularly ineffective Asian prescription for coughs, acne, itchy eyes, dirty teeth, dirty hair, white hair, stomachache, hangover, fat in the blood, blood in the stool, and cancer. But it’s unique among traditional medications concocted with animal parts (rhino horn, tiger penises and pangolin scales, for example) in that it does have limited medicinal value for a few other afflictions.
Bear bile can’t cure anything, but it eases discomfort of sundry liver disorders and, at least according to a 2022 proclamation by the Chinese Ministry of Health, COVID 19. While it has been seen to dissolve human gallstones, other far more effective and far less costly treatments are readily available.
“When I started working on rhino horns in Vietnam 11 years ago, a doctor at the most prestigious hospital in Hanoi was prescribing rhino horn,” says John Baker of WildAid. “Almost every family had a relative using it. It’s just keratin; you’d get as much benefit from it as chewing your fingernails. I tried to convince people they were wasting money because rhino horn was so expensive. One person said to me: ‘No, no. You don’t understand. Rhino horn makes bear bile work better.’”
In 1955 Japanese scientists synthesized bear bile. You can buy it at most any pharmacy under the brand name Actigall, and it’s much cheaper than the actual product. So for 70 years there’s been no need to harvest bile from bears or traffic in bear gallbladders.
Yet harvest and traffic continue, threatening the existence of already imperiled Asiatic black bears, sun bears and sloth bears. Once bear viscera is removed, it’s virtually impossible to identify species.
“The U.S. is contributing to the illegal trade in bear gallbladder products,” says Ed Newcomer, an expert in wildlife law, an attorney and a former special agent for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Law Enforcement Division. “The U.S. is made up of a diverse population, including large populations of people from southeast Asia, Korea, and China. Bear gall powders and flakes are routinely smuggled into the U.S. for sale in Asian communities in large metropolitan areas.”
In 2022, the China-based market research firm QY Research estimated that the Chinese market for bear bile powder was worth nearly $62 million — almost 97% of the global market. And its value is expected to increase. According to the report, China sold 44.68 tons of bear bile powder in 2021.
“Today,” warns the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “a major threat to the American black bear is widespread poaching, or illegal killing, to supply Asian markets.”
“As the Asian bear populations continue to decline, there will be increasing pressure on bear populations in other areas of the world to meet this trade demand,” declares Dr. Christopher Servheen of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Bear Specialist Group.
Public exposure of such abuse by groups like WildAid, Animals Asia, Wildlife SOS, Four Paws, International Animal Rescue, World Animal Protection, Animal Wellness Action, and the Center for a Humane Economy has reduced gallbladder traffic and bile harvest in such nations as Vietnam, South Korea, and to a limited extent, even China (though traffic and harvest got a boost by the Ministry of Health’s COVID 19 prescription). Bear bile farming has been illegal in Vietnam since 2005. But enforcement is lax, and there are many grandfathered bile farms licensed before 2005.
While this moderate tightening of Asian markets is good news for Asian bears, it’s bad news for North American bears because it places even more pressure on them. “Ten years ago I think it [bear-parts traffic in the United States] was a relatively minor problem,” remarks Ron Swatfigure, chief of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division. “Today, I think it’s a very large problem.”
This from Wayne Pacelle, president and founder of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy: “Bear farms, notorious for their inhumane practices, continue to operate in China and other countries and pose a threat to both captive and wild bear populations. Furthermore, China’s absence of wildlife trade policies poses a risk to global conservation efforts. Poaching rings targeting the extraction of bear gallbladders have been uncovered in U.S. national parks, underscoring the urgency of addressing this issue internationally.”
“The market demand for bear gallbladders and bile is on the rise and is negatively impacting bear populations worldwide,” reports Michigan University’s Animal and Legal and Historical Center. “Mounting evidence points to a systematic pattern of killing bears in the United States and Canada in order to satisfy the demand for bear parts in consuming nations, primarily Asian markets. The bear parts trade is international in scope and difficult to regulate and contain. The current approach of trying to regulate the legal bear parts trade on a state-by-state basis in the United States and on a country-by-country basis globally has failed, and has actually facilitated the illegal trade. It is time to recognize the usefulness, if not the necessity, for national legislation uniformly prohibiting commercialization of bear viscera. In addition, an international moratorium on global trade in bear parts and derivatives is long overdue and much needed.”
A patchwork of varying state laws provides a loophole for poachers to cash in on bear gallbladders, which can sell on the black market for $1,000 each. Poachers also sell bear paws, relished for soup in Asia.
The Lacey Act makes it a felony to transport illegally taken wildlife and wildlife parts across state lines, but enforcement is difficult. A poacher can legally hunt and kill a bear in any of 27 states or 11 Canadian provinces, claim he shot it in New York, Idaho, or any other state that allows trade in bear parts, then hawk gallbladder and paws.
“If one state allows trade in bear parts, it contributes to illegal trade everywhere,” says Michael Sutton, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent and past president of the California Fish and Game Commission. “And there’s no way to determine point of origin. The laundering of wildlife has always been a problem with wildlife trade. It’s so easy to launder bear parts through states that allow trade. The feds are concerned about this because different state laws make their lives difficult. And the state law-enforcement chiefs aren’t in favor of the bear-parts trade even though some of their commissions authorize it.”
“If one state allows trade in bear parts, it contributes to illegal trade everywhere. And there’s no way to determine point of origin. The laundering of wildlife has always been a problem with wildlife trade. It’s so easy to launder bear parts through states that allow trade. The feds are concerned about this because different state laws make their lives difficult. And the state law-enforcement chiefs aren’t in favor of the bear-parts trade even though some of their commissions authorize it.”
The Cruelty of Bile Harvest
Not only does the loophole threaten North American bears, it promotes gallbladder traffic worldwide and bile harvest in Asia.
Bile harvest is horrifically cruel. Cubs are bred in captivity or taken from the wild after bile farmers have eliminated the danger of protective mothers by killing them. Cubs are then immobilized in cages so small they can’t turn around or stand on all fours, and they’re placed on near-starvation diets to encourage bile production. Some bears have holes cut in their gallbladders that are continuously reopened for harvest; it’s called “the free-drip method.” Other bears are surgically implanted with catheters that rust internally. Sometimes these catheters are held in place with metal jackets. Still other bears get thick needles jammed into their gallbladders multiple times a day.
There is no application of pain-killing agents. Bile farmers extract any teeth and claws not already broken off by the animals themselves by biting and clawing at the steel bars that imprison them. Victims exhibit psychological distress such as swaying and rocking. The lucky ones die from infections, ulcers, gallstones, and self-mutilation. The unlucky ones endure the torture for decades.
It gets worse, as I learned from Ed Newcomer when he shared his experiences in Asia as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent. “Usually located near these bear farms are restaurants specializing in bear paw soup,” he told me. “In some Asian cultures, particularly Vietnam and Korea, bear paw soup is considered a delicacy and is most valued when extremely fresh. When a customer orders bear paw soup at one of these restaurants, an employee goes across to the ‘bear farm,’ uses a pair of tongs to reach through a bear’s small cage and grab hold of one of the bear’s paws. The paw is forcefully pulled through the cage bars, traumatically chopped off and the stump cauterized. A bear is good for four bowls of soup. It doesn’t need its paws because it can’t turn around in its cramped cage.”
A Legislative Remedy
U.S. senators and representatives of both parties regularly sponsor legislation to close the loophole created by the patchwork of state laws. But they’re invariably stuffed by outfits that purport to defend bear hunters but fail to explain why they imagine bear hunters want populations of their quarry decimated by poachers.
As far back as 1999 Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Representative John Porter (R-Ill.) attempted to close the loophole by introducing Bear Protection Acts. The legislation, declared McConnell, was aimed at “the growing illegal trade in bear parts, in which at least eighteen Asian countries are known to participate. The poaching of bears is a national problem that is destined to become worse.”
Both bills had extensive bipartisan support. Sixty-four senators co-sponsored McConnell’s bill, and 95 congressmen co-sponsored Porter’s. But self-proclaimed hunter-support groups shouted down the legislation. McConnell’s bill died in committee. Porter’s bill didn’t progress beyond the committee stage.
Nearly identical bills, led by Senator Mitch McConnell and having 67 Senate cosponsors, passed the Senate in 2000 and 2002. But, despite overwhelming bipartisan support in the House as well, they were blocked largely by Rep. Don Young (R-Ark.).
Essentially the same Bear Protection Act that Senator McConnell first sponsored in 1999 was introduced on April 1, 2021 by Representative Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) with 27 co-sponsors. But it, too, was savaged by groups claiming to support hunters. It died in committee.
The Bear Poaching Elimination Act of 2022, introduced by Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) with five co-sponsors, would also have closed the loophole. It was shouted down by the same groups and died in committee.
What was basically McConnell’s 1999 Bear Protection Act was introduced yet again on May 18, 2023 by Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas) with seven co-sponsors. Attacked by the self-proclaimed hunter-support groups, it languishes in the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries.
Leading the charge against protecting North American bears from the gallbladder and paw trade are the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. They submit that the legislation is “unnecessary” because there are currently plenty of North American bears. Such is the unfortunate and traditional approach to fish and wildlife management in America: Don’t act, just react; only manage a species once it’s dangerously depleted.
In addition to experience gained in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Law Enforcement Division and California’s Fish and Game Commission, Michael Sutton holds a law degree in international and natural resources from George Washington University Law School. I asked him why groups that claim to support hunters oppose bills that would serve hunters by protecting their game from poachers.
“You would think that hunting groups would support this kind of legislation,” he replied. “But many of these groups are super conservative and in bed with the gun lobby. So any restriction on use or sale of wildlife parts is viewed as an attack. I couldn’t even get the major hunting groups in California to support the ban on [condor and raptor poisoning] lead bullets for hunting. California Waterfowl, the biggest hunting group in the state, knew that shooting ducks and geese with lead shot was not a good idea. We’ve been shooting waterfowl with nontoxic steel shot for thirty-four years [thanks to a 1991 federal ban on lead waterfowl pellets]. But I couldn’t get them to support the lead-bullet ban because they’d be subject to criticism from the gun lobby. Under the deregulation environment of the Trump administration it’s going to be harder than ever to get bear protection through.”
Not all hunter-support groups lack the spine to stand up to the gun lobby. Bear gallbladders and other bear parts could legally be sold in Vermont until 2022 when all such traffic was outlawed. Hunter-support groups like the Vermont Traditions Coalition (an outfit stridently supporting hunting and “hunter rights) and wildlife advocacy groups (most notably Protect Our Wildlife Vermont, Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy) all worked together to pass the legislation.
Mike Covey, Executive Director of the Vermont Traditions Coalition, announced to the press that the new law “will reduce the likelihood of bears being harvested for the wrong reasons, and help secure a healthy future for our herd.”
A Synthetic Alternative
Why is bear bile farming and gallbladder traffic thriving when synthetic bear bile is readily available and far less expensive? I put the question to WildAid’s Baker.
“I don’t have an answer,” he told me. “It might be that people live in countries where there’s a high level of corruption and where it’s easy to get the real stuff, or where [bile-farm] permits from previous decades are grandfathered, as in Vietnam.”
Groups like Animals Asia provide some hope. It has elicited a pledge from the 60,000-member Vietnamese Traditional Medicine Association to never prescribe bear bile. And in Vietnam’s bile farming areas Animals Asia works with schools and communities, providing free herbal medicine clinics and helping children create gardens that grow herbal alternatives to bear bile.
Animals Asia, International Animal Rescue, Wildlife SOS, and Four Paws rescue few bears (maybe 1%) from bile farms, mostly in China and Vietnam, and rehabilitate them in spacious sanctuaries. In China alone an estimated 20,000 bears suffer in bile farms.
“Many rescued bears are permanently handicapped by grotesquely short and bowed legs that had nowhere to go as the bear grew,” says Newcomer. “And most, if not all, bears who survive these farms are missing at least one paw.”
Dr. Jill Robinson, founder and CEO of Animals Asia, offers this: “Every time we carry out a rescue the shocking condition of the bears in cages defies reason and belief. We look at them with minds reeling. And, if not to each other, we say to ourselves, ‘How did you live like this? How did you survive for so long?’”
By standing up to make-believe hunter-support groups fronting for the gun lobby, Congress can assist bear-rescue organizations, reduce bear gallbladder and bile demand, and protect North American bears.
Bears and law-abiding bear hunters need help. Please ask your legislators to back or sponsor legislation to impose an import, export, and interstate ban on all traffic in bear parts.
The writer, a lifelong hunter and defender of fair-chase hunting, is a former information officer for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. He writes exclusively about fish and wildlife and serves on the Circle of Chiefs of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. You can read his other writing at YaleEnvironment360 and Writers on the Range.