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Traditional Chinese medicine

China's bear farms prompt public outcry

Nature volume 484, page 455 (2012)Cite this article

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Some 10,000 bears are farmed in China to procure their bile for traditional Chinese medicine. This cruel practice has stimulated a wave of condemnation across the country.

Bile is repeatedly collected from live bears through a surgically introduced opening into the bile duct, a procedure that is painful and distressing to the animals (see www.animalsasia.org). Some pharmaceutical companies use a variation of this technique that they say does not hurt the bears.

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  1. College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, China

    Xia Sheng, Haolin Zhang & Qiang Weng

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  1. Xia Sheng
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  2. Haolin Zhang
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  3. Qiang Weng
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Sheng, X., Zhang, H. & Weng, Q. China's bear farms prompt public outcry. Nature 484, 455 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/484455c

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  1. Yoav Kashiv

    I echo your hope that this cruel and senseless practice will be abolished asap!

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