E-Petition to Save Bile Bears in China
Dateline: 08/28/00By David Emery
In recent weeks I've received dozens of copies of an email petition protesting the plight of Asiatic black bears (also known as "moon bears") in China. Factually speaking, there's not much to quibble with in the message. Hunted almost to extinction in parts of Asia because their gall bladders are valued in traditional medicine, thousands of these bears now live in miserable conditions on factory farms where they are permanently catheterized and housed in cramped cages to facilitate the daily "milking" of their bile.
This is not only inhumane but unnecessary, experts say, for there are recognized medical alternatives to the bile of these long-suffering animals. Thanks to the efforts of animal rights groups, even the Chinese government now acknowledges this and is taking incremental steps toward eliminating the farms (see Reuters wire story, July 24, 2000).
Activists say there is still much to be done. Not only must China be pressured to keep its word, provision must be made for rehabilitating all of the freed animals.
However, there are good ways and bad ways of effecting change. Here's one example of the latter – an email petition circulating in various languages for a year or more:
|
Please read this and, if you feel strongly about it, do the following... We ask the Chinese government for compassion. Today in China 10,000 (ten thousand) bears are kept prisoner for extracting bile form their gall bladders. The bears are kept in a horizontal position, in cages that look rather like coffins . They wear a metal collar and are held down by pressure bars. A catheter is introduced into their body that continuously absorbs the liquid from their gall bladders.. The bears cannot change their position and remain in this condition of permanent pain between 15 and 20 years! We cannot accept this cruelty, torture and barbarism to continue and be part of the life of these poor bears for another minute. With their paw they take some food through a little opening in the cage.To quench their thirst they have to stretch their tongue to lick the bars of their prison.They suffer excruciating pain as they have to stay for an average of 15 years in the same position that deforms their bones. We are talking about 15 years or 180 months, or 5,475 days, or 131,400 hours or 78,844,000 minutes of continuous pain. The bile serves a disgusting market: it is used to produce shampoos, afrodisiacs and 'miraculous'remedies. During the extraction of the liquid, a tube is inserted in the gall bladder; one end of the tube stays outside the belly of the bear, linked to a machine that extracts the bile. The suffering of the animal exceeds the imagination : the bear wishes death, mutilates himself and tries to commit suicide. For further information visit: http://www.geocities.com/Baja/2324/index.html (Click the English version) To help, you just need to copy this email and sign the list below, which calls for the immediate end of the horrific "Bile Farms" - then send this message to as many people as possible. Thanks again. Once this list reaches 100, please send to ramona@unikey.com.br [ List of names deleted ] |
Hyperbole aside, the gist of the message is accurate. So what's wrong with signing it and forwarding it along? To put it bluntly, email petitions are a waste of time and resources. They don't work. With rare exceptions, they simply can't.
Next page > What's wrong with e-petitions? > Page 1, 2
