- BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese
man who raised bears to tap them for their bile, prized as a traditional
medicine in Asia, has been killed and eaten by his animals, Xinhua news
agency said Tuesday.
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- Six black bears attacked keeper Han Shigen as he was
cleaning their pen in the northeastern province of Jilin on Monday, Xinhua
said.
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- "The ill-fated man died on the spot and was eaten
up by the ferocious bears," it said, citing a report in the Beijing
News.
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- In practices decried by animal rights groups, bile is
extracted through surgically implanted catheters in the bear's gall bladders,
or by a "free-dripping" technique by which bile drips out through
holes opened in the animals' abdomens.
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- More than 200 farms in China keep about 7,000 bears to
tap their bile, which traditional Chinese medicine holds can cure fever,
liver illness and sore eyes.
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- Bear farming was far more widespread before the cruelty
involved came to light and Beijing introduced regulations to control the
industry in 1993.
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- Animal welfare groups have called on China to completely
ban bear farming, arguing that traditional herbal medicines can serve the
same purposes as bear bile.
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- Xinhua said police sent to the scene of Monday's killing
injected one of the bears with tranquilizers "but failed to tame the
mad animal."
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- Police then threw meat into the bears' pen to distract
them so they could recover Han's remains, it said without elaborating.
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