MEPs demand action on bear farms

The bears have metal catheters inserted in their gallbladder

The European Parliament has passed a resolution demanding pressure on China to ban the farming of bears for bile.

The bile is extracted from the caged bears' gallbladder by means of a metal catheter, then sold for use in Chinese medicines and cosmetics.

The resolution was approved by more than half of the parliament's 732 members, with cross-party support.

"We want China to shut all the bear farms before the 2008 Olympics," said British Labour MEP Peter Skinner.

Bile shampoo

He said that he and the other MEPs who tabled the resolution wanted China to know that the way a country treats animals shaped the way it is perceived in the rest of the world.

It is an added disgrace that an oversupply of bile is being used in products with no medicinal value Labour MEP Peter Skinner

"While there is obviously a lot of attention on China's human rights record, we do not want animal welfare to be forgotten," he said.

"It is an added disgrace that an oversupply of bile is being used in products with no medicinal value such as shampoos, skin cream and wine."

Now that the resolution has been passed, the European Commission and each of the EU member states are obliged to take action.

The Chinese government has already closed down some farms, but according to the MEPs, there are still about 200 in the country, keeping more than 7,000 Asiatic Black Bears in captivity.

Illegal in the EU

The bears, also known as Moon Bears, can expect to live for up to 30 years in the wild, but life expectancy falls to 10-12 years in a cage.

Bear bile is illegal throughout the European Union, but is sometimes found during police raids in London's Chinatown.

The resolution was tabled after MEPs on the parliament's animal welfare inter-group - which includes members of non-governmental organisations, such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals - met Jill Robinson of Animals Asia, who set up a bear sanctuary in China in 2000.