Why is this treatment so appalling?

Once a cub reaches three years of age it is moved into a tiny cage for the rest of its life. The cage often measures no more than 1m high by 1m wide by 2m long. This means the bear won’t be able to stand up or move around for the rest of its life. The psychological problems caused by this cruel confinement are startlingly similar to those present in some human mental illnesses.

In order to extract the bile, bears undergo an invasive surgical procedure usually performed by untrained farm workers. The procedure creates a tube-like pathway to the gall bladder into which a plastic or metal tube is inserted to drain the bile. The wound never heals and causes agonising pain, as well as ongoing risk of infection, which can be fatal. Up to 60% of bears die shortly after the initial procedure because of the lack of veterinary skills present during the operation. Other methods used to extract bile include the implantation of a permanent catheter or extraction using a syringe. Once bears stop producing bile they are left to die or are killed for their paws and gall bladder.

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