Attitudes Toward Bile Extraction From Living Bears: Survey of Citizens and Students in Beijing

Abstract

Bear bile is a traditional Chinese medicine that has been used for millennia. Several arguments support and oppose the use of bear farming in terms of conservation and nonhuman animal welfare. This study involved designing a questionnaire and surveying a random sample of general citizens and college students in Beijing to elicit their attitudes on bile extraction from living bears. Older people and people with lower education levels used more bear bile medicines. In total, 29.47% (n = 204) of citizens and 23.14% (n = 81) of students surveyed used bear bile medicine since 1990. Students were less willing to use bear bile medicines than citizens (p < .05). The level the respondents agreed with the blue side (against the extraction of bile from living bears; anti for short) was significantly higher than that for the red side (support the extraction of bile from living bears; pro for short; p < .05). Additionally, college students had a more distinct attitude toward the opposing views, which indicates they were more inclined to oppose bile extraction from living bears.

Combining data from consumers and traditional medicine practitioners to provide a more complete picture of Chinese bear bile markets

“…The UCT's indirect questions have high statistical error, and our target sample size of 4,000 total surveys would yield a statistical power of >0.8 if consumption prevalence was at least 8%, with individual provincial samples reaching this power if prevalence was 16% (Ulrich et al, 2012). These values are below the only available consumption prevalence estimate for China (23%-30%: Liu et al, 2017), and recent estimates in Vietnam (18%-45%: , suggesting our sample size was adequate. Data collection continued until the target sample size in each district was reached.…”

“…Younger people reported to consume more wildlife in Southern China (Zhang et al, 2008). Older people reported to use more bear bile products in Beijing (Liu et al, 2017) Gender All people who reported that their last visit to a TCM practitioner was in the last week, month, 6 months or year were combined Consumption of animal-based TCM medicine for serious disease is likely to be mediated by medical practitioners (Liu et al, 2016) Know somebody who uses bile (consumed models only)…”

“…To date, the only estimate of prevalence of bear bile consumption in China is from 2012, when 23% (n = 81) of students and 30% of the public (n = 204) in a sample from Beijing reported having consumed bile at some point in a 22-year period (Liu et al, 2017). A nationwide survey in 2010 found that fewer than 20% of respondents had either consumed or knew somebody who had consumed bile, although consumption prevalence could not be estimated as these two questions were combined, and the time frame for use not clearly defined (Dutton et al, 2011).…”

Bear bile use at the intersection of maternal health in Cambodia

“…Asiatic black bear bile has a medicinal basis, with a long history of use in China for hot ailments such as fever, general pain, inflammation, and epilepsy [14]. Currently, bear bile continues to be used for medicinal purposes in China, with one recent study estimating the prevalence of use at nearly 30% of the Beijing sample [27]. In Vietnam, which shares medical similarities with China, bear bile appears to be used more often and is generally prescribed for much the same ailments, with the most common being bruising, general pain, and fever [28]; however, bear bile as a postpartum treatment was rarely be cited by Vietnamese respondents.…”

The diversity of ursodeoxycholic acid precursors from bile waste of commercially available fishes, poultry and livestock in Indonesia

“…Though bear farming was introduced to meet the demand, the current number has dropped since the Chinese government began to regulate the process, prohibit the hunting of wild bears, stop giving licenses to new farms, and shut off rogue farms that cannot follow the regulation. In addition, the extraction of bile from living bears is considered to be extremely cruel, inhumanly and unethically method, and therefore becoming serious attention from the animal welfare of view (Li et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2017). As a substitution, UDCA is currently made through chemical synthesis by using cholic acid (CA) or chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) as starting materials (Figure 1).…”