British vet Claudia Hartley has been restoring vision to moon bears rescued from Chinese bile farms since 2008. In 1998, Animals Asia, a charity set up by fellow Briton Jill Robinson, started to resuce bile bears in the region and became a source of inspiration for Hartley.
China is the biggest producer of bear bile in the world and last year between 9,000 and 20,000 bears were being kept on an estimated 100 farms around the country. Farmers produce on average around 7,000kg of bile every year.
Besides being used in traditional Chinese medicine as a liver tonic (despite the fact that there is no medical evidence to support it aiding liver function) bile is now used in everything from shampoo to toothpaste and eye drops. Hartley reminds us that "the bile is unpasteurised, it's got blood, pus and tumour cells in it," amd yet they are putting it in products such as toothpaste and eye drops. According to Hartley the belief is that if it's got bear bile in it, its good for you. That's what makes the demand so high.
During the process of harvesting their bile, the bears, both those that are captured from the wild and bred in captivity, are kept in small cages and starved, only given a bit of water and rice so they have no energy and cannot move. A hole is made through their skin and stomach wall to the gallbladder where the bile is made. Many bears die of infection as the procedure is not done by a vet and in a very unsterile environment. Even if they survive infection many move on to liver damage and some loose their eyesight due to cataracts caused by the constant infections, trauma and malnutrition.
When Hartley first encountered these blind moon bears, she had only removed cataracts in dogs, cats and horses. Neither she nor anyone else had ever thought to remove cataracts from a bear. "Thankfully, bears' eyes are like dogs' eyes", she explained.
The whole process takes about half an hour per eye, and when the bears wake up they can see, often for the first time in years.
Claudia has now saved eight rescue bears from blindness and today she works in south east Asia performing the same surgery on bears there.
"For me, the loveliest moment is when the bear's carer can see the bear watching them for the very first time, they have developed a really close relationship but the bear's never seen them before. It's heart-warming".
Once they've regained their sight and recovered they can go outside again and finally see where they have spent all their time playing over the past months or sometimes years.
However, on occasion the psychological damage caused by the cruel bile harvesters proves to be a problem for their full recovery. Hartley tells the story of a bear in Chengdu who was terrified by the sight of grass. Unable to walk on the lawn in his enclosure he paced around the concrete for two years.
But nevertheless these incredibly strong creatures still come back with a fight. "They're real characters. They love the hammocks in the enclosures, especially the bears suffering from arthritis caused by being severely crammed into small cages. They're amazing."
The Chinese government has now decided not to issue any more licenses to farm bear bile and Animals Asia is buying licenses, and consequently the bears, off of farmers in a hope to end the practice.
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