FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(NEW YORK, NY) February 6, 2001 – Today, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the nation’s oldest humane organization, congratulates Rep. Elton Gallegly (R, CA) on introducing the Bear Protection Act (H.R. 397), with 76 cosponsors.
Rep. Gallegly’s bill puts the U.S. on the road toward shutting down a global trade that has devastated the world’s bear species and has begun to take a toll on American bears. The Bear Protection Act will help conserve global bear populations by prohibiting the importation, exportation, and interstate shipment of bear viscera (chiefly gall bladders and bile), as well as items, products, or substances that contain or claim to contain bear viscera.
Rep. Gallegly pinpointed the need for his bill: “Bears are being killed simply for their gallbladders and bile, which are ingredients in a number of popular alternative medicines and luxury consumer goods. In many cases, the rest of the bear carcass is left to rot. My bill will not affect the states’ right to regulate bear populations. Nor will it affect legitimate bear hunting rights. However, it is imperative that we protect our own bears and the world’s bears from this outrageous and wasteful killing.”
“Bears the world over need the protections that this bill will provide. Rep. Gallegly recognizes that this cruel trade poses a threat both to bears overseas and to bears here in the U.S. and has made a strong commitment to ending it,” said Nancy Blaney, director of the ASPCA’s National Legislative Office in Washington, D.C.
Asian bears have been virtually extirpated, and the poaching of North American black bears throughout their range is climbing, largely due to the growing market for gall bladders. Poaching cases in the United States, including a large bust in the Shenandoah Valley in 1999 that netted 300 galls and resulted in 25 arrests, have been linked to smuggling operations set up to satisfy a domestic and worldwide demand for bear gall bladders and bile.
Numerous studies demonstrate that the trade in bear gall bladders for use in traditional Asian medicines and luxury consumer products is on the rise and that there are well-developed markets for the parts of North American black bears. Networks of poachers, middlemen, and retailers are engaged in moving these parts around the country. It is estimated that poachers kill more than 40,000 bears in the U.S. annually, including thousands in our national parks. Between 1995 and 1999, Federal law enforcement authorities uncovered 70 shipments of bear parts destined for Asia. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent once estimated that for every poaching case uncovered, another hundred go undetected.
This legislation is needed because a patchwork of state laws regulating trade in bear parts puts American bear populations at risk. States with weak or no laws undermine the rights of other states that try to protect their bear populations by prohibiting trafficking in bear parts; such disparity allows a black market for bear gall bladders to flourish in the U.S. By prohibiting interstate trade in bear viscera, The Bear Protection Act will strengthen and support existing state bans, provide uniformity, and improve enforcement.
Chinese “bile farms” also subject thousands of bears to unspeakable cruelty as they spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy cages, unable to move, being mutilated and milked for their bile. Bears captured from the wild supplement the captive-bred population, and the bile and products containing it are now being sold illegally in the U.S. China wants to register these farms as internationally approved breeding facilities under the Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). If this happens and the Bear Protection Act is not law, America could be flooded with the products of this indefensible torture.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and its 685,000 members nationwide have worked with Congress for the past several years to secure passage of this important bill to protect bears from the horrors of worldwide trafficking in bear viscera. On October 17, 2000, the Senate passed similar legislation that Sen. Mitch McConnell had introduced in the 106th Congress.
“With Cong. Gallegly’s efforts, such tremendous bipartisan support, and success in the Senate last year, I am confident that the 107th Congress will enact the Bear Protection Act into law,” said Blaney.