Gui Zhen Tang
Gui Zhen Tang (Chinese:归真堂) is an abbreviation of Fujian Guizhentang Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, known for its expensive Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM), especially its herbal remedies containing bear bile.
To extract the bile, a digestive juice produced by liver and stored in gall bladder, from caged black bears alive is one of the company’s most lucrative businesses. Despite an increasing public awareness to its cruelty, Zhang Zhiyun, the company’s board member, said he would by no means to withdraw his investment from the company. Zhang made the statement in late Feb. 2012, a few days after the company’s application for its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Shenzhen, an attempt that was severely bashed by animal protection organizations like Animal Asia Foundation (AAF), and relevant social activists, who feared that the expanded fund-raising channels would cause more black bears to suffer.
A number of Chinese celebrities also petitioned the domestic stock market watchdog to veto the application.
“There are no diseases that can be cured only with bear bile,” said Zhang Xiaohai, an executive at AAF, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Hong Kong.
Used for expelling pathological heat, healing inflammation and detoxification particularly with its ingredient ursodeoxycholic acid or UDCA, bear bile has been hunted for centuries in Asia. Bile-collection methods are seemingly civilized today compared to in ancient times, as the bile can be captured without slaughtering the animals or inserting tubes to the organs while the bears are still alive. Still, tubeless surgeries cause permanent wounds to the bears that are prone to infections and lead to cancers.
According to AAF, farmed bears often live five or six years, as opposed to their wild peers, which typically can live up to 30 years.
Additionally, Bear Bile is not an irreplaceable element in traditional Chinese medicine; there are substitutes which could be extracted without causing cruelties to animals.
However, Fang Shuting, head of the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), denied that the bear bile extraction is cruel at all.
“Nowadays, the bear bile extraction only takes 10 seconds. The black bears can remain playing or eating without feeling any pain or abnormalities in such a transient time,” Fang said.
“Based on my observation, the bears are rather comfortable during the extraction,” he added.
His words triggered a storm of online criticism, with some making sarcastic comments that no one was extracting his bile.
Despite vociferous protests, Gui Zhen Tang opened its bear farm to media and some animal protection activists, but the latter refused the invitation by saying the two-day showcase might not shed light on the company’s practices. During the media’s questioning session, a reporter asked “how do you know the bears are not in pain when you were not of them?” A company board member refuted, “how do you know they are in pain when you are not of them?”
