Five black bears, used to harvest bile for medical ingredients 13 years ago, have been living a healthy and peaceful life at a nursery in south China's Guangdong Province.

The Guangdong provincial forestry bureau rescued nine Asiatic black bears in 1996 from an illegal bear bile farm in Guangdong's Huizhou, where the animals had cuts made in their abdomens and metal catheters connected with rubber tubes inserted to extract the bile while they were alive.

A bear nursery, funded by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), was then set up in the suburbs of Panyu City, in Guangdong, for the animals, who had suffered malnutrition and diseases and had been in critical conditions.

Four of the bears died later at the nursery. The remaining five, about 18 years old, are expected to live another three to five years, which is considered as longevity among black bears, said the nursery head, a man surnamed Zhang.

They enjoy good cares and an annual health checkup, including blood tests, teeth checks and CT examinations. They even have different toys every day, Zhang said.

The nursery, covering 10,000 sq m and staffed with five employees, has cost the IFAW more than 20 million yuan over the past 13 years. Despite this, the organization still has to finance it with 1 million yuan every year for its maintenance.

However, this practice was challenged by some people, who thought the organization was wasting money. Some others regarded it weird.

"The social significance of the nursery is far beyond what it costs," said Ge Rui, IFAW's Asia regional director.

"It not only provides a shelter for the injured bears, but also serves as a lesson to raise the public awareness of protecting animals," she said.

According to surveys conducted by the IFAW, the majority of the respondents opposed getting bear bile using cruel methods. Some traditional medical practitioners were also working to find substitutes for bear bile.

"More people have better understanding of the fact that consuming wildlife will hazard biological diversity and devastate the planet ultimately," He Yong, a staff member with the IFAW Beijing branch told Xinhua on Sunday.

The black bears, also known as moon bears because of the crescent-shaped mark on their chests, are under state protection as an endangered species.

Their bile is believed to combat fever, protect the liver and improve eyesight, and has been used in Chinese traditional medicine for more than 1,000 years.

The practice of extracting bile from bears alive started in the 1980s. From 2003, China stopped exporting bear bile products, approved no new bile extracting facilities and prohibited the hunting of wild bears, according to the state forestry administration.

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2009)