Karen Mok, Jack Ma and others were invited to watch. Recently, the conflict between society and enterprises caused by Guizhentang's plan to go public has revealed the inside story of live bear bile extraction. The doubts of society on the way Guizhentang extracts bile from living bears directly led to the discontinuation of sales of bear bile products in pharmacies in Shenyang, Chengdu and other places. Facing an increasingly large wave of opposition, the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) first clarified the issue of extracting bile from living bears. Apparently, the remarks of Fang Shuting, president of the TCM Association, that "extracting bile from living bears is not painful at all, like turning on a tap, and may even be comfortable," further angered the public. To clarify more effectively, Fujian Guizhentang Bear Farm opened to display the "pain-free drainage procedure" and invited some celebrities to visit.
After the news of Guizhentang, a producer of bear bile products, planning to go public was disclosed, it faced strong public opinion resistance from animal protection organizations and the general public. The reason for opposition was that extracting bile from living bears is too cruel to animals. In response, on February 16, Guizhentang staff demonstrated the process of extracting bile from living bears to journalists. During the process of extracting the bear's bile, the black bear greedily ate food, showing relatively calm physical reactions, and the entire process lasted about 20 seconds. Staff explained that they extract bile twice a day, and if the black bear felt pain, it would not crawl into the iron cage voluntarily to eat. If it felt pain, the bear's body would have a resisting reaction.
This process seems to confirm the description of Fang Shuting, president of the TCM Association, that extracting bile from living bears is natural, painless, and the bear might even feel comfortable. Guizhentang demonstrated that during the process of extracting bile from living bears, the bear eats calmly, thus proving that it does not feel pain. However, this cannot reassure skeptics, as people still question whether the bear will remain calm when bile is extracted at other times, such as when it is not eating. Therefore, this issue seems unsolvable. It's like a fish swimming in water, telling the water: "You don't know I'm crying because I'm in the water."
This foreign case represents a classic confrontation between those opposing abortion and those supporting it. Using it as an example or analogy might seem somewhat disrespectful, but people are likely to accept it because one important reason for protecting animals is that humans are not much different from beasts (humans and animals are actually the same), and protecting animals is equivalent to protecting humans themselves.
On March 22, 2004, Judge Richard Conway Casey of the U.S. District Court in New York made a ruling regarding issues involving women's abortions. For late-term fetuses, if an abortion is necessary, doctors should be allowed to test whether the fetus feels pain. For abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, anesthesia or painkillers should be used on the fetus. This reflects both humanity towards the fetus and respect and care for life. Prior to this, some people opposed testing the fetus's sensations, arguing that the fetus does not feel pain and women have the right to autonomously and freely decide whether to abort the fetus. For this purpose, Judge Casey entrusted Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand to conduct fetal sensation tests. The conclusion was that fetuses after 20 weeks of gestation can feel pain. Due to Dr. Anand's profound medical and research experience, Judge Casey considered Dr. Anand's test evidence reliable.
Returning to the issue of whether living bears feel pain or comfort during bile extraction, Guizhentang and other companies producing bear bile products indeed need to provide scientific evidence to prove that the bears truly do not feel pain during bile extraction, for instance, that the bears do not retreat, convulse, or show fear, and that the levels of cortisol and -endorphins in their blood are normal. Furthermore, companies producing bear bile products should also present new molecular biological evidence, such as testing the level of FO S protein during bile extraction from bears. A large number of new studies indicate that FO S protein is an important molecular marker of pain.
Source: Mucity Network