Asian bears (such as the malaysian sun bear and the himalyan black bear) are particularly threatened by the use of bear gall bladder extract in traditional chinese medicine. The bears are captured, kept in small rusty cages and a metal pipe is stabbed into their body to extract their bile. They are in continuous pain because of the pipe and the subsequent bacterial infections they get and often chew their own paws off in agony.
....I'm so sorry bringing up all this sad stuff during your Thaksgiving holiday. Its just... I feel so sad and helpless when I see stuff like this, and there's fabulists like Mr. Make-believe here that only have to open their mouths to make things worse.
Thankfully there are sane people out there (www.wildaid.org and www.wspca.org) that are making a difference. Please, please, please If you know anyone that makes use of this stuff tell them NOTHING extracted from an animal is going to have any medicinal effect because it is protein, which means its made up of the SAME amino acids you get from all the other food you eat. Plus it gets broken down by the acid in your stomach so fat chance its going to retain whatever magical medicinal property its supposed to possess!
Sigh...
Rant over. Thank you for your patience!
