Over a thousand doctors in China have signed a pledge not to prescribe bear bile to their patients. The doctors were attending the 8th Shanghai International Forum of Infection Control (SIFIC) which took place in Shandong province.

Animals Asia met with doctors at the event and provided information on the cruelty involved in the bear bile farming industry and the potential health risks of taking infected bile. We asked them to sign a pledge to no longer prescribe bear bile to patients.

Our pledge card states:

“As a doctor, I care about the health of my patients and I sympathize with the situation of black bears. I will join Animals Asia’s “Healing without Harm” campaign, and will not prescribe bear bile products to my patients in the future.”

On learning about the cruelty to the bears and the condition of the extracted bile, the doctors expressed astonishment, having not realised the nature of the industry and the potential harm to consumers from bear bile products. Many doctors and hospital directors are now keen to work closely with Animals Asia to present information on bear bile farming to their hospitals to spread the word to medical staff from all departments.

As part of our campaign to end the barbaric bear bile trade, we work on reducing demand – from both the public and industry-related organisations such as pharmacies and hospitals. Reducing demand for bear bile is a vital step in the campaign to end bear bile farming – bear bile products can easily be replaced by herbal or synthetic alternatives, which are cheaper, more readily available and just as effective.

Toby Zhang, China External Affairs Director, Animals Asia commented:

“The medical industry is devoted to helping people to be healthy, but prescribing bear bile is not only causing suffering to thousands of bears, it may also be harming the health of patients. It is greatly encouraging that doctors are signing this pledge not to prescribe bear bile in the future, and we hope this will help lead to the end of bear bile farming in China.”