Demand for bear gallbladders, bile and paws has made bears more valuable dead than alive. The sum of saleable parts can make a dead bear worth in excess of $10,000. An average sized bear gallbladder commands as much as $3,400 in Asia. A single serving of bear paw soup in an exclusive restaurant in Asia can fetch as much as $1,400. Asian countries such as China and South Korea are the leading consumers of bear products.

Why are bear parts valued?

Bear gallbladders and bile are used in traditional medicine to treat a variety of illnesses including fever, liver disease, convulsions, diabetes, and heart disease. A person who eats bear paws is believed to acquire the strength and vigor of a bear, and the consumption of bear flesh in believed to enhance one's virility. Clinical research analyzing the medicinal properties of bear gallbladders indicates that they may be effective for treating a number of ills. However, other natural substances already accepted in traditional medicine, as well as synthetic substances, can be substituted.

Are bears threatened by the trade?

Yes. There are eight species of bears (brown bear, American black bear, Asiatic black bear, polar bear, giant panda, sloth bear, spectacled bear, and sun bear). Each of Asia's five bear species—the brown bear, the Asiatic black bear, the giant panda, the sun bear, and the sloth bear—has suffered from the effects of hunting for the Chinese medicinal trade, as well as from habitat destruction that threatens all the Earth's wildlife. With the exception of pandas, of which fewer than 600 exist in the wild, little is known about the population levels of any Asian bear species other than they are in decline.

While having relatively large populations, America's black and brown bears are increasingly being poached for the bear trade, as are Russia's brown bears on the Kamchatka peninsula. There is little evidence of the poaching of polar bears or South America's spectacled bear.

Aren't all bears protected from trade by international law?

No. Most species and populations of bears are listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which means that their international commercial trade is forbidden. However, some populations of the brown bear, as well as the American black bear and polar bear, are only on CITES Appendix II, which means international trade is legal and regulated by permit. Inconsistent CITES protections allow traders in Asia to illegally trade in the parts of endangered bears simply by falsely stating that the viscera comes from Appendix II bears. Customs officers cannot tell the difference between the gallbladders of Appendix I and II bears.

What about laws in countries that are major consumers of bear parts?

Taiwanese law bans the sale of bear parts, but the law is not enforced and bear gallbladders, bile, and paws are widely available. Chinese law allows the sale of bear bile extracted from live bears on government-sanctioned bear "farms" and bans the sale of other bear parts, but the laws are not enforced. South Korean and Japanese laws do not address the trade in bear parts.

Aren't U.S. bears protected from trade by domestic laws?

No. The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) affords protection to only a few species and populations of bears: giant pandas, Mexican grizzlies, Asiatic brown bears, Italian brown bears, and Baluchistan bears (which are considered endangered), and Louisiana black bears and grizzly bears (which are considered threatened). States manage bear populations and regulate trade in bear parts; eleven states allow the sale of bear parts, 34 states ban the sale of them, and five states have no laws on the trade. The growing illegal trade in parts from poached bears is facilitated by this patchwork of state laws. Whole bear carcasses are being found with only their gallbladders and paws missing. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents have arrested a number of people in recent years for trading in bear parts. Parts of American bears are destined for Asia, as well as to Asian markets in the U.S. and Canada.

What about China's government-sanctioned bear farms?

In the 1980s, China recognized that their supply of wild bears for use in traditional medicine was running out. Instead of trying to discourage the use of bears, China began experimenting with the extraction of bile from living, captive bears. According to Chinese officials, the bile produced by a single captive bear in one year is equal to that obtained by killing 44 wild bears; over a bear's five-year production span, 220 wild bears' lives are saved. Today, there are an estimated 7,000 bears on China's farms and the use of bear bile is increasing, as are the number of bears on farms.

But the extraction of bear bile, and incarceration of bears on farms, is horribly cruel. The bears are kept in tiny wire cages, so small that the animals often can not sit up or turn around. A catheter-like tube, or a surgical steel tap, is painfully inserted into their gallbladder from which the bile is extracted. Infections often develop where the bile leaks around the insertion. Many of these bears go crazy from the pain, boredom, and frustration. Moreover, bears continue to be removed from the wild to stock the farms, placing Asia's bear populations in further jeopardy.

	Black Bears