The recent scandal in China of baby formula and milk containing melamine has seen over 6,000 babies affected and three who have died. One of the responses from the Chinese Government was that they hadn't been alerted to this before and were blaming the milk companies concerned for keeping the growing crisis from the ears of the Government and innocent public.

This statement set us on a path towards tying in this scandal with our own concerns regarding the contaminants we find in bear bile. For a while we have been trying to reach someone who will listen to our fears that the bears are dying in such unusual numbers from a disease which doesn't normally affect them until old age.

Bears of varying ages, including two- and three-year-olds, are dying of liver cancer and we now worry that there could be a link between the contaminated bile we find in their gall bladders and the cancers killing them today. If it is killing bears, what is it doing to people who consume the medicines containing such contaminated bile?

Although we are yet to prove this, we have taken the line of asking the Government to investigate our fears and not sit back waiting for the day we were proved right.

The fact is that we are seriously worried with the high incidence of liver cancer in our rescued bears and with the bile containing pus and contaminants in nearly every sample studied, we are highlighting our belief that the Government should be analysing this urgently for themselves.

Please click here to read our press release, which went out today.