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The bears live in cages no bigger than themselves for ease of "milking." Bile is extracted through a cut made in the bear's abdomen and into the gall bladder, where bile is stored afer being secreted by the liver via the hepatic duct. A tube is inserted into this opening to tap the bile, or a steel stick is forced into the gall bladder with the bile then running down it into a basin. Between 10 and 20 ml of bile is tapped from each bear twice daily. The WSPA reports that, during milking, investigators saw bears moaning, banging their heads against their cages, and chewing their own paws. The mortality rate is between 50 and 60 per cent. [2] When the bears stop producing bile after a few years, they are moved to another cage, where they are either left to starve to death, or are killed for their paws and gall bladders. Bear paws are considered a delicacy.

A bile bear or battery bear is the term used for Asiatic black bears kept in captivity in Vietnam and China so that bile may be extracted from them for sale as a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The bears are also known as moon bears because of the cream-colored crescent moon shape on their chests.

There are estimated to be around 4,000 bile bears in Vietnam, where their bile can sell for 100,000 dong a millilitre (with 37,500 dong a week regarded as the poverty line for an urban resident), and around 9,000 bile bears in China. The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) conducted a study in 1999 and 2000, and estimates that there are 247 bile-bear farms in China, holding 7,002 bears, [3] though the Chinese government has called the figures "pure speculation." [4]

In July 2000 Animals Asia Foundation, a Hong Kong based animal welfare charity set up by Jill Robinson MBE working in partnership with the Chinese authorities, signed a landmark agreement with the Chinese Government to rescue 500 suffering and endangered Moon Bears from the worst bile farms in Sichuan province and work towards ending the barbaric practice of bear farming forever. Today, the China Bear Rescue has seen freedom for 198 previously farmed Moon Bears at a Sanctuary in Chengdu, and is helping to advance the concept of animal welfare in China. www.animalsasia.org

A cage no bigger than the bear enables for easy "milking." This bear, lying on her back, shows where the fistula is inserted through the abdomen into the gall bladder.