This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

China’s National Health Commission recently released a list of recommended coronavirus treatments. Despite temporarily banning the trade and consumption of wild animals just days before, this list inexplicably recommends an injection containing bear bile and goat horn as a treatment for COVID-19. Join us in contacting China’s public health authorities and decision-makers to request a permanent ban on all exploitation of wild animals to prevent future pandemics! 

The deadly coronavirus originated from a wet market in Wuhan, China, where wild animals were confined in tiny cages and butchered in filthy conditions. The zoonotic disease is thought to have been transmitted to a human after consuming a wild animal, likely bat or critically-endangered pangolin. On Feb 24, China adopted a temporary ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals to prevent the transmission of disease. 

On March 4, China’s National Health Commission published a list of coronavirus treatments. This list inexplicably included injections of Tan Re Quing, a formula used in traditional Chinese medicine containing bear bile powder, goat horn, and herbs. There are many herbal bear bile alternatives and synthetic bear bile is available. The World Health Organization asserts there is currently no known cure for COVID-19. 

Bile is a highly acidic fluid that is produced in the livers and stored in the gallbladders of most vertebrates. The substance is harvested on bear bile farms in China and Southeast Asia from bears, often Asiatic black bears also known as “moon bears,” who are held in cramped cages so small they often cannot move. They are deprived of space, freedom to roam and the ability to act upon their instincts, and denied absolutely everything that wild animals need to thrive. The agonizing process of extracting bile involves inserting a syringe, catheter, or pipe into an animal’s gallbladder. Bile bears are forced to endure this horrific procedure over and over again. 

Why would the Chinese government choose to temporarily ban the trade and consumption of wild animals to prevent the spread of disease, while promoting the exploitation of wild animals as an unsubstantiated treatment for COVID-19? 

What You Can Do: 

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.