Most TCM halls stick to ban on sales of illegal animal products
Grace Chua, Straits Times 8 Dec 08;
'NO, WE do not import illegal bear products,' says the elderly woman proprietor of the Chinese medical hall in Ang Mo Kio.
But when asked if she had bear gall bladder, she readily says: 'We may have some left over.'
She then shaved slices off a lump of waxy, blackish substance and pressed them into four capsules. The asking price: $20.
It was the only shop out of 10 Chinese medicine halls that agreed to sell The Straits Times the banned product. The other nine said selling such products was illegal and that their shops had stopped carrying them five to 10 years ago.
The sale of bear products, along with those of tiger and rhinoceros, is prohibited under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). Singapore is a signatory to the convention.
Under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act 2006, selling or advertising products containing parts of endangered animals carries a maximum penalty of $50,000 and two years in prison.
Madam Kong Yown Foong, the proprietor of Eng Peng Trading Chinese Medical Hall, says it is not worth the risk. 'We would lose a lot of money in order to make a small sum.'
She receives requests for bear bile and bear gall about once a year but suggests her customers try herbal alternatives instead.
It appears that most Chinese medicine halls are complying with the ban, though there are a few black sheep.
An undercover probe by the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) in 2006 found 23 out of 115 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shops, or about 20 per cent, selling bear products, down from more than 70 per cent in 2001.
It is not at all clear that these products are even genuine.
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) investigated 14 shops last year offering illegal bear products for sale and found that products in 12 of the shops were fake.
But this is just as damaging as selling the real thing, said Acres.
'By making a claim that the product is from bears, the dealer is potentially driving up the demand for bear products, which directly contravenes the spirit of Cites and the local legislation meant to enforce Cites,' says Acres' executive director Louis Ng.
In March last year, Acres and the Singapore TCM Organisations Committee introduced a voluntary labelling scheme for TCM outlets, to verify that they do not sell tiger, bear or rhino products. So far, 274 of the 800 TCM retail outlets in Singapore have signed on. At least three of the 10 outlets The Straits Times visited had the red accreditation sticker pasted on their premises.
Those who suspect a shop is selling illegal animal products should not buy from it, says AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong. They should instead contact the AVA, which will investigate the matter immediately. The AVA hotline is 1800-226-2250.
Links
More about Acres and their bear bile campaign.
