The simple bare necessities

If my memory serves me correctly, I was about 8 when I got a ‘WereBear.’ Apparently, it seems, I was quite the tomboy since these bears were made to be bought for boys, while the famous ‘CareBears’ were bought by parents for their princesses. I demanded a ‘WereBear’ and Howler was his name. He was awesome, a sky blue bear (Koreans love to throw this color around) with yellow pants. The great thing about him, the thing that separated him from the other bears such as Steiff and the new up and coming Tatty bear was that he could morph into a scary monster, hence the ‘Were’ part of his name. ( I don’t think I need to explain further, do I ?)

All one must do is pull his cute face over and underneath lie fangs and bulging red eyes, his paws could even be pulled over to reveal dark black claws. Ok, maybe I wasn’t that much of a tomboy because I remember approximately 3 occasions with which I morphed him into his scary doppleganger, but I loved him and that was that.

We used to build forts together...

When I was 8 and lived my life alongside Howler, people didn’t do bad things. I did not know what conspiracy meant let alone had theories of my own. When Howler cuddled me at night I thought that everyone in the world was just as lucky, if not more lucky than I was. I could not fathom that I was actually living a life in the top 10-15% richest people in the world!!
On paper it wouldn’t seem that way, I was from a ‘broken home’ ( a stupid term, that seems to sound as if people are failures when really my life was far happier than some ‘fixed homes’) we lived in rented government housing, albeit it was a 3 bedroom, 2 story house. My mother held down a variation of jobs including a secretary and a sales assistant position. In school I could say I was scoffed at and I, myself, was even embarrassed by my situation. Shame on me because, again, there are approximately 75% of people in the world who would give their left arm for my life.

You grow up and you get a heck of a lot wiser. (well, some people)

Teddy bears may be the stuffed animals that kept us warm at night and loved us unconditionally, even when you had a rough day at school but in reality we don’t deserve their love.
Grown ups can be evil. On Christmas day they buy their child a teddy bear to show their love; in real life bears are becoming extinct. In the not so distant future they will NO LONGER be on Earth and the teddy bear that cuddles you at night will be part of a myth.

Moon bears (or Asiatic black bears or Ursus Selenarctos Thibertanus yeah, forget that one) are part of the Black bear family and are often known to be the most dangerous of the bears. I have no sympathy with the humans in this case. Of course, if my boyfriend was ripped apart by a savage bear I would be a little annoyed, but what we have put these animals through is revenge enough.
It’s the age old tale of man vs predator and man will always win. How can an animal ever win against a man with a weapon and miles of distance? You didn’t ‘survive’ and you shouldn’t be honored, you merely took an animal by surprise and ended it’s and it’s offsprings life as they know it.

Moon bears (and also the American black bears) have it worse. No animals leave this world untouched these days and Moon bears are no exception. From hunting as a sport (gross), timber harvesting, poaching, or capturing for the pet trade, moon bears are highly desirable among the immorality of Asia.
China, North and South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia...they all want their pound of flesh.

It is hard for me to shy away from my thoughts on Korea since I have lived here for nearly 5 long years and so I feel I have somewhat of a right to talk about the country and it’s part in the destruction of these beautiful creatures.

I will try and make this as clear as I possibly can from my plethora of notes. Luckily, I am not on my own in my despise of this ‘business’ so the internet is packed to bursting with articles on this subject.

Let me start at the beginning. Birth.
Asiatic black bear cubs are in demand. From day one the hunters have their tasks and that is to bring home a cub. They are taken to be ‘pets.’ Not a puppy or a hamster, but a pet bear..'cause of course that makes perfect, logical sense ! At 3-4 months the cubs are removed from their mothers, either born in captivity or in the wild, where hunters await the mom to be asleep before they cowardly rip a family apart. There are approximately 140 bears that live in Taiwanese homes!

Of course, it is far too dangerous to keep an adult bear at home and so when the cuteness wears off and the family has had quite enough of playing fetch and wrestling with a bear that can be 110-450 lbs, they are sold onto their future homes: for slaughter or for a life of suffering.

It is said, in some circles, that bear paws are one of the best delicacies. In the Hilton hotel in Seoul ‘braised bear paw’ is sold for $492-$562. The price is high not just because of demand but because someone has to go and get the bear. There is usually a waiting period if you want the bear dish. For example, a restaurant in Japan will serve bear paw as an entree for $236 but it will take 10 days! *shudder*

It is known that Korean tourists enjoy taking trips to Thailand to attend banquets. A live bear is the centre of attraction and is killed before the tourists and the gall bladder removed and eaten...

I cannot help but wonder about Koreans and their heartless attitude when it comes to animals. We have all heard the tales of dog eating and of course the thought of Rover being on the Saturday barbecue makes our teeth itch, but it’s the ‘way’ Koreans do things that fascinates me. I do not know if it just because the newly developed Korea, that we know of today, is only 60 years old and so the generational thinking is still in the hardship days of the war. Where people HAD to survive by eating dog meat that was discarded by the affluent Japanese rulers after they killed the dog for their pelts. Or just because that is the way of their culture but they are a group of tough cookies.
Another example is with moon bear farming, my main qualm.

The most desirable asset a moon bear possesses (poor things) are their gall bladders.

As mentioned previously at the Korean’s lavish banquet in Thailand *insert rolling eyes*

I will tell you a short story here as, let’s say, an intermission.

Last week I was teaching 3 middle school Korean boys English. We were talking about folk tales and they had to tell me Korea’s own folk tales. One boy, very painstakingly, told me about the folk tale of the first King of Korea ‘Tan-Gun.’
Hwan-Ung, the son of God, asked to be put on Earth, for he longed to live there. So God sent him to Korea (I would be so angry and demand to be put somewhere a little more exotic, like Hawaii) Once there he met a tiger and a bear who desired to become human. Hwan-Ung told them that if they ate only garlic cloves and mugwort (my student said worm wood and I was baffled for the rest of the lesson) for 100 days and lived in darkness, they would then become humans. The tiger gave up but the bear persisted. She became a human!

Hwan-Ung then married the bear (I know it got weird) and they had a baby together (then it got awkward.) Tan-Gun (the baby) became the first king of Korea!
The bear is the mother of Korea, how ironic.

Intermission over.

A gall bladder’s function is to store bile produced by the liver; when food is consumed the acidic bile is released to help break down the food.
In asia, the gall bladder of a moon bear is used for medicinal purposes. A bear’s gall bladder in South Korea sells for $18 one more time, $18 that is less than a dinner for two or if you are as tight as me, a dinner for three! Other bear parts that are used for traditional medicines are: fat, meat, paws, spinal cord, blood and bones. The gall bladder is the most infamous and is used to treat liver disease, heart disease, hemorrhoids, and to stop people getting a hangover, yep!

The bile is the part of the gall bladder that makes it invaluable.

I urge you to visit www.animalasia.org a non-profit organization set up by a British (yeah, I shamelessly boast my country) woman called Jill Robinson whose life goal is to rescue and rehabilitate moon bears, who have lived their lives, thus far, in a bile farm.

Ah, the infamous bile farms.

Imagine a farm from your childhood picture books and toys, then remove the grass, the air, the food, the water, and replace everything with small, metal cages. That’s it, no more.
Bear’s in these farms can live up to 10 years longer than in the wild. 33 years!
In the farms they are put into inadequate sized cages and kept there for their entire lives. They are starved, and only fed enough to be kept alive, because the less food eaten the more bile is produced and is stored in the gall bladder. Water is a privilege that is given when it is the bear’s turn to give their bile.
The bears are strapped down, de-clawed (sometimes de-pawed) and their teeth ripped out so they cannot attack the ‘farmers.’ A needle is punctured into the stomach, and subsequently into the gall bladder and the bile is then extracted through a tube. The bile is extracted EVERY day and sometimes more than once.

Legal methods allow this permanent hole to be made, while illegal methods include using metal catheters and rubber tubes. The line between legal and illegal is hard to ascertain and it isn’t difficult to imagine how many cross it for convenience. Metal [straight] jackets have been known to be put on the bears and, never removed, to prohibit movement which is very frustrating to the farmer who just doesn’t understand why the bear’s would be wailing in agony!

All this is done without anesthetic or sterilization. It’s just too costly.

The wounds that will never be permitted to heal because the hole is kept open can easily cause:
infections, tumors, peritonitis, disease, and cancer.
Sure glad I don’t take bear bile for my ailments. God only knows what I could get in the process. And yet more than 50% of traditional medicinal shops in China sell bear bile in their products, 100% of which is from farmed bears, living their 33 years in constant fear and pain.

In South Korea, my home for the past 4.5 years, there are 23 bear farms where 'customers' can come and watch the bile 'milking’ process. Just to check on it’s authenticity and of course continue my belief that some Koreans lack much, if any, empathy with animals.

To end, I should address the actual truth about UDCA or Ursodeoxycholic acid, the acid in bear bile.
There is evidence that this bile can treat liver ailments and dissolve gall stones and bear bile does seem to contain the highest quantity; 0-32% per pool of bile. However, there has been known cases of harm caused by taking bear bile since it could contain puss, feces and even rust. There are 54 alternatives found in plants.
As Jill Robinson once said “No one is going to die from a lack of bear bile.”
There are actually more synthetic UCDA alternatives than bear bile in Asia but, it seems, to display affluence then you must consume the bile from a magnificent animal.
Sadly rhino, tiger, and bear parts are viewed as superior to any type of herb or plant based synthetic since humans are much closer in the evolution cycle to a bear than a rhubarb.

Recently, I read an article about South Korea finally making a stand against bear bile farms. A huge sum of money has been invested into research and movement towards ending the practice and this is a huge step. There are now only 10-20 Moon bears in Korea.
This number has always been said to be protected, but in 1983 one of these bears was illegally killed and so the government couldn’t think of another alternative than to auction the gall bladder to the highest bidder ($64,000.)

My eyes are twitching now from looking at my computer so long and I must take a rest. I have read more about moon bears than I spent years playing with Howler and it is all over the net for people to see. Articles, pictures, videos. The Moon bear is on www.redlist.org as vulnerable but I am pretty sure that if their are 10-20 left in Korea ‘vulnerable’ is an understatement.

The mother of Korea should be ashamed to have ever wanted to be a human.