In the course of keeping tabs on puppy mills, I run across all manner of other forms of animal cruelty: kittens fed to snakes, dogs thrown off bridges, mutilated rabbits. I thought I’d heard it all until I drove to Missoula, Montana this week and listened to renowned biologist and author Marc Bekoff describe the plight of China’s moon bears.

 

I was vaguely familiar with the practice of caging Asian moon bears — so named because of the cream-colored, crescent-shaped V on their chests — for the purpose of extracting bile, which is used in all sorts of traditional eastern medicines. But I hadn’t known the particulars. The bears aren’t merely caged, it turns out: they’re confined to incredibly small “crush cages,” which makes it easier to extract the bile via catheters stuck into their gallbladders. The bears are stretched out on their backs in these cages, which often measure a mere 2.6 by 4.4 feet. They’re so immobilized that they can move only their heads — and not, as Marc pointed out, for 15 minutes or 15 hours, but in some cases for 15 years. Or longer.

 

This painful procedure combined with intensive confinement has to be the most despicable, insidious form of abuse ever inflicted on an animal. And thousands of bears across Asia endure it in bear farms that make puppy mills seem like palaces.

 

I was so touched by a photo Marc showed of Jasper, a moon bear who was finally rescued from his crush cage and is now living his final years at a sanctuary. Despite his ordeal, Jasper has learned to enjoy life — and even serves as an ambassador of sorts to new bears. Years of torture failed to kill his spirit.

 

Marc spoke about many more aspects of animal life in his talk, which was sponsored by the University of Montana’s Center for Ethics. A professor emeritus in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, he conducts research the world over for books like The Emotional Lives of Animals and Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals. I was lucky enough to join Marc and some colleagues for dinner beforehand and found him funny, engaging and eloquent.

 

Read more about the plight of moon bears at http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?UID=2J0NIOGTVCWA