It may be the Year of the Monkey, but for the new arrivals at the Moon Bear Rescue Center it is turning out to be their year.

Watching them lumbering out into the watery, winter sun, it is hard to believe that these beautiful creatures, their black coats gleaming, are the same piteous animals that were brought to the center.

"The transformation is amazing. It was so wonderful to see them coming out of their dens this morning," said Zhang Xiaohai, beaming as he watched some of his charges.

His astonishment is not surprising, given the condition the bears were in on arrival at the center just outside the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.

Years of confinement in cages too small for them to turn or move about properly, with steel catheters up to 18 centimeters long permanently embedded deep into their gall bladders so they can be 'milked' of their bile, results in chronic health problems.

Bear bile has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine.

However, the Asiatic black bear (Ursus Selenarctos Thibetanus), to give the moon bear its official name, is one of the only eight bear species in the world and one of the most endangered, with just a few thousand remaining in the wild in China.

Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) it is listed in Appendix I, the most critical category of endangerment.

Illegal hunting of the moon bear, slaughtered for its 3-ounce gall bladder, had to be stopped and thus, an alternative way to satisfy market demand for bear bile was found and adopted, which involved extracting bile from captive bears.

Thus started licensed bear farming.

The active ingredient in bear bile is UDCA (ursodeoxycholic acid) and it is used for the treatment of many illnesses and diseases.

Half-a-century ago the first synthesized UDCA was produced by scientists in Japan. Since then synthetic UDCA has proven its efficacy across Asia in the treatment of colon cancer, primary cirrhosis, hepatitis C and gall stones.

In fact, more synthetic UDCA is consumed in Japan, South Korea and China than the natural form of the acid extracted from farmed bears.

A report by the Chinese Association of Medicine, Philosophy and Earthcare has established that there are at least 54 herbal alternatives to bear bile.

Other experts in the field of traditional Chinese medicine also support the contention that herbal and synthetic alternatives are just as effective as bear bile and support abandoning its use.

However, bear farming has continued and it is estimated there are 209 farms operating nationwide.

The turning point for the bears came with the signing of a landmark agreement between the China Wildlife Conservation Association, the Sichuan Forestry Bureau and the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF), a registered charity in the UK and Hong Kong Special Administrive Region.

Signed in 2000, the first such accord between the Chinese Government and an outside, non-governmental organization, the agreement has three main goals, foremost of which is the elimination of bear farming in China.

Since that day progress has been remarkable. Relying totally on donations, the Chengdu center -- staffed by volunteers and paid employees, mostly local -- is currently home to 116 moon bears.

To date 38 bear farms have been closed in Sichuan and a total of 137 bears rescued. The compensation paid to farmers for their bears and cancelled licenses enables them to move to other areas of employment.

At the same time, a countrywide policy ensures that no new licenses are being issued.

The aim of Animals Asia is that by 2008 when the Olympics come to Beijing, bear farms in China will have been consigned to history. That aim appears to be wholly realizable thanks to the combined efforts of English woman Jill Robinson and the Chinese authorities.

"What we get from the Chinese Government you couldn't buy. They are just incredibly supportive. They have helped locate farms and arrange for us to visit them, and they do all the paperwork for us to get the bears," explained Robinson.

"They now accept that it is a practice that should end and are committed to closing the farms down," she added.

The reality of a life free from pain and suffering has come to the privileged few bears at the Chengdu Center. Take a bear called Freedom, for example: She really is quite magnificent, majestic in fact, that is until she begins to walk. Half of her two front legs are missing, probably because of the illegal traps used to catch wild bears.

But Freedom seems determined to live up to her name as she valiantly tries to climb a sloping log, one of the specially designed play structures in the rehabilitation enclosure where she will live out her days.

When you glance around the enclosure, the first thing that strikes you is how healthy and sociable the 35 bears it houses seem to be. Some frolic together or engage in good-natured wrestling bouts, while others laze peacefully on the grass or take a dip in the pool.

Enticing titbits of fruit and honey-daubed tree trunks encourage others to try more adventurous antics, in particular climbing, all designed to build up their physical strength and confidence.

Extraordinary efforts

The very existence of the Rescue Center is due to the extraordinary efforts of 45-year-old Robinson, founder and CEO of AAF. With a background in television in London, Robinson moved to Hong Kong with her airline pilot husband in 1985.

Animal welfare and conservation had always been of interest to her and it was in Hong Kong that the opportunity to become involved in such work presented itself.

A decade on, it has taken over her life and today she spends more than half her time on the mainland.

The real breakthrough came when she won the approval and backing of the State Forestry Bureau to set up the Rescue Center for 500 moon bears.

On arrival at the center the bears are sedated and given a health check before being moved into a roomier cage to await surgery in the center's hospital. During this period they are observed, begin to regain their strength and gradually adjust to a more spacious environment.

Those in most urgent need are operated on first. Surgery to remove metal catheters and repair or remove damaged organs, including their gall bladders, takes several hours, with the longest operation to date taking seven and a half hours.

After surgery they spend a period of time in quarantine, as some of them are infected with parasites, before being moved into their dens, which open onto the rehabilitation enclosure.

Here they spend three months learning to walk, climb, socialize and fattening up.

A fully grown male bear can weigh well over 200 kilos and when standing upright fill a doorway.

The fittest are eventually released into the Bamboo Forest Sanctuary, the nearest environment to living in the wild they will ever know. Of the 37 bears who arrived in late November last year, 25 have so far undergone surgery and some are already beginning to venture out from their dens into the rehabilitation enclosure.

Zhang Xiaohai, 35, from Beidaihe, on China's northeast coast, began working at the center around the time the latest arrivals were brought in. His joy at the transformation he has witnessed in the bears is evident. Invaluable as an interpreter, Zhang is also responsible for public relations and closely involved in developing education resources.

Valuable research data is also being gathered from the Animals Asia's work with the moon bears. Speaking as she operated on one of the new arrivals, a 92-kilo male, Dr Gail Cochrane, Animals Asia veterinary director, said: "We are learning so much from them. How they recover and what problems they have. We are gaining evidence all the time. They have an amazing constitution and resistance to disease."

The current operating costs of the center, not including rebuilding and construction work, are around US$10,000 a month. Bear sponsorship, fund raising events and other individual donations are what keep it going.

The bulk of the money raised comes from donations and merchandising by AAF supporters in Hong Kong. Germany ranks second, followed by the combined efforts of Australia and New Zealand and then the United Kingdom. Corporate donations have been invaluable to the ongoing work.

A recent downturn in demand for bear bile, coupled with an increasing number of first approaches being made to Animals Asia by both government officials and farmers spells good news for farmed bears.

"Forestry officials are happy that we are getting these bears. Without government support it would be impossible to do our work. They are now seeing there is somewhere to put them," said Cochrane.

"We plan to open on a limited scale, for pre-arranged group visits this year and to the general public in 2005. We want to develop greater public awareness about animal welfare and conservation, bears in particular," said Robinson.

Web of life

A planned Education Village, enabling visitors to learn about animal welfare and conservation in general is key to the long-term future of the Moon Bear rescue project.

American thinker, Chief Seattle wrote in 1854: "Man did not weave the web of life, he is but one strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the children of the Earth."

Maybe the Moon Bear Rescue Center will serve as a reminder that mankind is but one strand and the treatment of animals is a matter that ultimately concerns us all.

A look back over the last century or so should sound the alarm bells -- HIV, measles, BSE (Mad Cow disease), ebola, monkeypox, dengue fever, influenza, salmonella linked to production line poultry farms, SARS, and the latest episode of avian flu -- all involve the jumping of viruses from animals to humans through the consumption of wild animals or through negligent and abusive treatment of animals.

Further information about the Moon Bear Rescue Center can be obtained from their website, www.animalsasia.org, along with details of how to support the work.

(China Daily February 24, 2004)