Dear Kizzi,
Starting October 18th, I’ll be wearing 15 pounds of steel chain (an adult’s bowling ball weighs between 14 and 16 lb.) for five nights and days, to aid the work of the Animals Asia foundation.
The two meter length of chain will be padlocked to my wrists and ankles, demonstrating of a small fraction of the discomfort some of Asia’s animals are subjected to. The chain is of industrial strength and designed for pulling tractors.
The chain will prevent me from lifting my arms, and also put a great deal of strain on my shoulders. And I’ll need to take my clothes on and off with safety pins down the sides!
I’m doing this because an estimated 12,000 Asian black bears (or “moon bears”) are still being kept on barbaric bile farms across China and Vietnam. There they are kept in tiny cages and “milked” daily of their bile for use in traditional Asian medicine.
In China, the bears have open fistulas carved into their gallbladders from which the bile freely drips. In Vietnam, where bile farming is illegal but still widespread, their gall bladders are punctured by unsterile needles and the bile withdrawn through a section pump. In both countries, the bears spend the duration of their thirty year life span kept in cages that make it impossible to move or turn around.
The bile extraction methods result in a litany of excruciating diseases and mutilation suffered by these bears, rendering their bile arguably highly toxic. And yet the cruelty continues. Over fifty herbal alternatives to bear bile, and some synthetic ones, exist making the bears’ suffering even more unnecessary.
The bears are deliberately deprived of all but essential food and drink as thirsty bears produce more bile and, when their productivity falls, many are left to die of dehydration as the farmers do not wish to pay for humane euthanasia. Please help spread awareness of this travesty. I’d urge you to watch this 4 minute video put together by Animals Asia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENl5091uAM which explains more or visit the website www.animalsasia.org . Please donate and spread awareness of this appalling industry. Thank you so much
My Givey link is: https://www.givey.com/SHACKLESFORBILEBEARS
Katie Warren