Seoul, South Korea
AP
—
South Korea announced this week that it would officially end its shrinking but much-criticized bear bile farming industry, but about 200 bears are still kept in cages and bred for their gall bladders.
The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment announced on Tuesday that keeping and possessing bears, as well as collecting their bile, will be banned from January 1. The changes are in line with the revised Animal Welfare Act, which imposes prison terms of up to two or five years for violators.
South Korea is one of the few countries that allows agriculture to extract bile from bears (mostly known as Asiatic black bears) for traditional medicine and as a food that is believed to promote vitality and stamina.
But the practice’s popularity has plummeted over the past two decades in response to questions about its medicinal properties, the availability of cheaper alternative medicines, and public awareness of animal cruelty.
Farmers and animal rights groups agree to ban
The ban is part of a broader agreement in 2022 by officials, farmers and animal rights campaigners to ban bear bile farming from 2026. Animal rights groups are responsible for purchasing bears from farmers and for the government to set up facilities to house them.
A total of 21 bears were purchased this year and relocated to a government-run reserve in the southern state of Gerroa. But 199 bears remain in captivity on 11 farms across the country, officials, activists and farmers say, amid ongoing disputes over how much farmers are paid to release their bears.
The Environment Ministry said bear keepers have a six-month grace period, but anyone who collects bile from an animal will be punished by law. The ministry announced it would financially support farmers who keep the bears until they are sold and relocated.
“Our country’s plan to abolish bear farming operations is a realization of our country’s determination to improve the welfare of wild animals and fulfill related international responsibilities,” Environment Minister Kim Sung-hwan said in a statement. “We will strive to protect bears until the last one.”
Kim Kwang-soo, a farmer in the southern city of Dangatsu who keeps 78 bears, said that due to economic difficulties, other farmers are selling their bears at very low prices, but he has not sold any of them.
“This is very bad policy,” said Kim, executive director of the Bear Breeders Association. “I will continue to abide by the law.”
Bear farming began in South Korea in the early 1980s, with farmers importing bears from Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. The industry has since come under fire worldwide for keeping bears in small, barren cages for their entire lives until they are slaughtered for their body parts.
In 2014, about 1,000 bears were kept on farms in South Korea. Since then, many farmers have sterilized bears in exchange for government compensation, Kim Kwang-soo said. He said some of the bears died naturally, while others were slaughtered for bile or attacked and killed by other bears kept in the same cage due to lack of proper management.
Animal rights groups praised the South Korean government for pushing ahead with the 2022 agreement, but called for a larger shelter to be set up to take in rescued bears.
The government says a maximum of 49 bears can be kept in the Jeolla Province reserve, but Kang Jae-won, an activist with the Korea Animal Welfare Association, said the number should not exceed 30. A second government facility was scheduled to be established in April, but flooding delayed its opening until 2027.
Kang said activists are discussing sending the rescued bears to zoos overseas.
“It’s very good that the (government) is reflecting on the bear bile industry and pushing for its abolition, but it’s unfortunate that there aren’t enough measures to protect bears,” said Jeong Jin-kyung, head of the Korean Animal Rights Advocacy Group in Seoul. “There is no place for these bears to stay.”
Sang-kyung Lee, campaign manager for Humane World for Animals Korea, also called for the remaining bears to be removed from captivity without delay and for the government to expand its role in supporting the creation of private sanctuaries “to restore these animals to a peaceful and relatively free life in their natural environment.”
