Straits Times 2 Oct 10;
A SHORT walk up a hillside at the edge of town is an unobtrusive shed. Inside, eight adult Asiatic black bears are in steel cages so small that the bigger ones cannot turn around. Some have scars on their foreheads from banging and rubbing them against the bars.
Nine smaller cubs pace up and down and paw at the bars of their cages. They will soon grow to fill them, their movements becoming more restricted. �
Two men go in once or twice a day. An adult bear is given a stick of sugar cane as a distraction. While the bear chews, its bile is drained with a catheter-like device into a plastic cup. Sometimes the pain makes the bear arch its back - but it cannot avoid the procedure because the cage is so small.
The shed stinks. The floor has to be washed daily as the bears defaecate and urinate on it through their cage floors. �
The Chinese owner of this bear 'farm', whose two workers are also Chinese, owns a shop in Boten, where dry flakes of the supposedly medicinal bile are sold in vials for a few yuan each.
In the lobby of the biggest hotel in town - the Royal Jinlun, owned by the Boten Golden Land company which runs the whole 20 sq km concession - whole bear gall bladders the size and weight of a BlackBerry are on sale for around US$1,000 (S$1,300), alongside carved ivory seals, figurines and chopsticks. ��
The rejuvenation of old trade routes and the new affluence of Chinese consumers are driving unprecedented plunder of Laos' wildlife and biodiversity.
But the 'farm' is not unique to Boten. Kuala Lumpur-based Chris Shepherd of Traffic - an independent agency tracking illegal trade in wildlife and plants - says there are thousands of bears in similar places regionwide. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the Asiatic black bear is an Appendix 1 species, which means it is high on the endangered list.
The shop in the Royal Jinlun lobby also sells tiger skulls. Some 100m from the hotel entrance is a shop which recently opened, also selling dozens of pieces of carved ivory as well as bear gall bladders.
Traffic's regional director William Schaedla said senior Lao officials want to curb wildlife exploitation,but 'the problem is the department in charge is frequently competing with other interests'.
NIRMAL GHOSH
See also North of Eden from The Straits Times Blogs by Nirmal Ghosh
