Seven bears rescued from a Hanoi bear bile farm
Thanks to your support, another seven bears were rescued from a bear bile farm in a rural district of Hanoi in Vietnam.
The rescue followed an operation in May 2022, when Hanoi police, in cooperation with our local partner, Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV), arrested the bear owner found with 350 vials of bear bile.
The vials were seized, and the bear owner agreed to turn over all seven bears on his farm.
Le Duy Phuong, Vietnam bear consultant for World Animal Protection said:
“Thanks to your support, we have been working in partnership with the Vietnam Forest Protection Department, on a microchipping and monitoring programme that helps to prevent any new bears from the wild entering facilities like this. This program also detects and prevents violations related to wildlife, such as bear bile extraction and selling bear products.
“For many years, the bears have been living in these small steel cages, in very poor conditions. They lacked access to natural sunlight, and their movement was also very restricted.
“I am very happy that these bears have now been rescued. In the sanctuary they will be live in a semi wild place where they can be cared for by experienced staff. I hope the bear soon adapts to the new home.”
Thankfully the bears will now live a new life away from suffering at the Animals Asia Foundation sanctuary in Tam Dao. The bears have been renamed Clear Moon, King, Lavender, Perry, Cherry, Carolina and Scarlet.
With you by our side, we'll continue working with our partners ENV, to raise public awareness of the cruelty, change behaviours, support microchip monitoring and advocate for stronger legal protection and enforcement for bears in Vietnam.
And we’re making great progress. The number of captive bear numbers have greatly reduced from 4,300 in 2005, to less than 285 bears today, thanks to collective efforts to end the illegal bear bile trade.
Together we can make this the last generation of bears to suffer. Forever.
Photo credit: Nguyen Van Tuyen
