Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment

Education for Nature-Vietnam (ENV) has launched a short film about bear farming in order to criticise the practice and call for bear protection.

This is part of ENV's long-term campaign in co-operation with Four Paws International, World Animal Protection and Vietnam authorities in order to put an end to bear farming in Vietnam and to call for protection for wild bears. The short film criticises the bear bile extraction process and the use of bear bile.

The film starts with a bear lying in a cage. From the bear's point of view, the audience will be able to experience its pain when having the bile extracted and the faces of the keepers. It's the reality for nearly 450 bears in various farms in Vietnam. In the film, the bear's owner felt regret and brought him to the bear protection centre.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung, deputy director of ENV, said, "The bears are caged because of human demand for their bile. The owners gain a huge profit from it. When people stop using bear bile then more and more owners will feel discouraged, regret and donate the bears to protection centres. We hope more owners will donate the bears in the future."

In 2019, ENV had worked with Four Paws International and World Animal Protection and Vietnam authorities to seize bears that are caged illegally without chips. They also persuaded many owners to release their bears. 34 bears were successfully transferred to protection centres.

Bear farms were closed in 20 cities and provinces after 2009. As of now, a total of 34 cities and provinces no longer have bear farms. ENV have dealt with bear farming since 2005 along with local authorities and non-governmental organisations. The number of caged bears was reduced from 4,300 in 2005 to 432 in 2019.

ENV's recent letter-writing contest entitled Give Bears a Better Life attracted 97,000 admissions from pupils across Vietnam. The public can help end the hard life of the caged bears by saying no to bear bile and persuading others to follow. They can also inform ENV about violations via their hotline.