Meet Tu Do: Her Rescue Just Ended Bear Bile in Son La Province, Vietnam
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Tu Do, the bear, was voluntarily surrendered by her owner to a sanctuary after World Animal Protection negotiations.
Bears in Asia are captured for their bile, which is extracted using cruel, painful procedures and sold as traditional medicine. These captive bears suffer in filthy and cramped conditions, often in cages no bigger than phone booths. But the bear bile industry is completely unnecessary. Plentiful and inexpensive synthetic and herbal alternatives to bear bile are readily available.
The bear bile industry causes intense, unjustified suffering to bears across Asia–and you help us put a stop to it.
Bear bile is extracted in intolerably cruel and inhumane ways, often by people with no veterinary qualifications and little concern for animal protection. Some bears face this cruelty throughout their lives. That can mean 20 years of torture–unless the bears succumb to infection, tumors, or self-inflicted wounds. Bears in the bear bile industry often moan and rock due to extreme anxiety. Many have broken teeth from biting on the bars of their cages.
Together, we can create lasting change to prevent the severe pain and psychological distress suffered by bears in the bear bile industry.
This bear has lost fur, possibly due to the stress of living in cramped conditions. World Animal Protection trained a local veterinary team in Hanoi, Vietnam (which we co-fund with the Hanoi Forestry Protection Department), to insert microchips that helps prevent new bears being poached from the wild and used in the bile industry.
We are committed to ending the exploitation of bears in the bear bile industry and to protecting wild bears from a lifetime of suffering in captivity. Our work includes:
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Tu Do, the bear, was voluntarily surrendered by her owner to a sanctuary after World Animal Protection negotiations.
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After 13 years of pain and suffering in captivity, a group of Asiatic black bears have been rescued from the horrific abuse of bear bile farming
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You just helped rescue two tiny bear cubs from the forests of Romania. Now, thanks to your generosity, these babies will be safe and cared for.
Through our “Wildlife. Not Medicine” campaign, we have nearly ended the bear bile industry in South Korea and are on track to stop it in Vietnam, too.