When the bear was trapped, she lost not only her paws and four limbs for

a good fortune of money, but she was locked up in the cage and had to endure daily tort ure of bile collection up to 25 or 30 years. This bile collection process requir es a hole to be cut in the bear stomach and an iron pipe inserted into the bear gall bladder. Bile was then taken several times a day. The entire procedure was done without anaesthetic in order to save cost. The pain was excruciating. The b ear could not bear it and attempted to kill herself by punching her stomach. How ever, human prevented this suicide act by forcing the bear to wear an iron vest. With this iron vest, her movement was restricted; committing suicide was an imp ossible task. A mother bear knew it too well. When the bear worker wanted to ope n up her cubs stomach, the mother bear broke open the cage and went after the cub . After failing to release the chained cub, she hugged the cub. The mother bear then killed the cub to save it from a life of hell. Here is the story from Chine se news. A friend asked me for a favour. He needed my assistance to manage a bear farm fo r a few days. The location was remote and unknown by many. I reached there at night. It was just before dawn, but I was still not able to s leep. I could hear the wind blow, as if someone was weeping with pain and hopele ssness. At that very moment, I heard the sound of the door moving and heavy brea thing. I sat up, pulled to a stand and turned on the light. "Who is it?" There w as no answer. The silence was terrifying. I reached out and grabbed a broom. Gently, I walked to the door and with a quick pull, opened it. Ha ! Its a bear cub curling up her body looking sheepishly as m e. I extended my hands and the cub waddled towards me. She rested her small palm s on my hands. Then she licked my hand with her warm and soft tongue. It was so heart-warming. Suddenly, I heard commotion from far. The cub quickly went under my bed. Then, there was a knock on the door. I opened the door and asked, Whats up? A man said, A bear cub just escaped from the bear farm. Has it come to disturb yo u? Oh, yes, there it is. I pointed at the cubs hiding place. The man squat down and grabbed the cub with one hand. With such roughness, he pu lled the bear out and tied her four limbs to a long wooden stick. They lifted th e stick and the cub was carried away from the room. As she left, she turned and gave me a begging and pitiful look. Iron Vest After dawn, the worker on-duty, Zhang took me to see the bears. In a few thousan d square meters wide and tall building, six cages were placed in an open space. In every cage, there laid a black and weary bear. What puzzled me was the shinin g metal around their bodies. Zhang told me, This iron vest is used to extract bile from the bear body. Now, th e price of this bile is 300 yuan per gram. He took me to the first cage, gesturin g to me, Lets start the bile extraction." I saw two sturdy workers tied up the bears body and pulled, through a pulley, a r ope that was connected to the iron vest. They shouted, Hi....! and I saw the bears

body contracted as they pulled. Suddenly, the bear gave out a hysterical roar, Wo o....!. That was not really a roar. It has changed to a desolate and sorrowful cr y. Her eyes showed endurance of excruciating pain. With restricted movement and space, she tried to struggle with her four limbs, kicking the ground with, Ze la, Ze la sound, which was such a pain to hear. At that very instant, I could hear t he dripping sound of liquid coming out from a steel pipe under the bears stomach. The workers then slowly released the rope followed by another long hard pull, as they repeated the extraction procedure. Another hoarse cry was heard. I saw the tears drop from the bears eyes. Similar to how a human would response to pain; t he bear clenched its teeth and bent its body. It was such a heart-breaking scene ! I could not bear to watch any further. I turned and walked away. At that moment, I suddenly realised, the moaning cry before dawn came from these tragic bears. Zhang followed me to the door. With trembling voice, I asked him, Have you lost y our humanity? These are living things! Zhang dismissed it, Not that we have any choice. This is how we earn a living. Calming down, I asked him with a heavy heart, How often do you need to extract th e bile? He replied, That depends. If the bear has good supply of bile, we will do it once or twice a day. The bear with less bile will be performed once in two days. Gen erally, a bear can produce 2000g of bile annually for 10 years. I trembled. Twice a day for 10 years, these are monstrous numbers! The bear has to go through such deadly torture twice a day, living a life without hope, for 1 0 years; 7200 times of flesh piercing pain; enduring it day after day, year afte r year. Even if this happens to the strongest human, he will not be able to sust ain it. My heart ached with pain. I wanted to leave. Zhang said, In a short while, a surgery will be performed on t he cubs. You cannot leave at this critical moment. You are representing Mr. Liu. If you leave and something goes wrong, who is going to bear the responsibility? Reluctantly, I followed him back to the bear room. Under his instruction, four s turdy workers brought in a cub and tied it up with chain. The cub looked at ever yone with horror. When she saw me, her eyes brightened up. The cub dropped to he r knees and begged me. I felt tears in my eyes. Zhang waved his hands, instructing the workers to start the surgery. In great despair, the cub lifted her head and cried, Wooo.... She burst into tears . It was the most sorrowful and soul-touching cry I have ever heard in my life. It was as if knowing the human language, the cub shouted out the word, Mom..... Ev en the workers were startled. At that very moment, an extra-ordinary shocking scene took place. A bear in a ca ge let out a loud cry. With her large hands and all her strength, she pushed ope n the thick iron bar and jumped out of the cage. The workers were terrified and fled away immediately. Startled, I didnt move. It was as if my legs had grown lead and I was not able to move an inch. However, the bear ignored my presence. She rushed to the cub. Wit h her large hands, in awkward movement, she frantically tried to release the cub from the chain. Despite her best effort, she failed to release the cub. So, she kissed the cub and nestled her in her arms with a heavy heart. She licked the c

ubs tears lovingly, crying, Hmm ..hmmm.... to soothe the cub. The cub cried out, Hoo oo...., as if calling her mom, asking her for rescue. Suddenly, the bear let out a loud ubs neck with all her might. She to the ground. Then, she released pered, as if saying, My child, I any more. Im so sorry. cry. With her large hands, she strangled the c roared as she strangled until the cubs body fell her hands. Looking at her dead child, she whim cannot save you, but you are not going to suffer

She bit her own hair. Then, she grabbed the iron vest and pulled it off her body . Together with the vest, the metal pipe flew out of the gallbladder. The fur at her stomach was covered with red blood as it dripped out of her stomach. She le t out another cry, as if she has gone