Environment
Quang Ninh's farms asked to send bears to Tam Dao Bear Sanctuary
  • By Thu Hang | dtinews.vn | March 21, 2015 10:11 AM

The government has requested Quang Ninh Province’s authorities to tranfer all the bears kept in local farms to the Vietnam Bear Sanctuary in Tam Dao District in Vinh Phuc Province for better care. 

The instruction was made by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.

Bears in captivity at farms in Quang Ninh Province are starving and dying en mass within a short time due to lack of proper care.

 

 Bears in Quang Ninh Province suffer from serious malnutrition due to lack of proper care

According to some farm owners, they did not have money to feed the bears after the provincial government banned private bear farms from extracting bear bile to sell to tourists in May 2014.

By the end of 2013, the province had 152 bears, but the number fell to just 82 by late 2014. The latest report from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that the province now has only 48 bears left at 18 family farms. These bears are all suffering from serious malnutrition and health deterioration.

According to a recent survey by Animals Asia and Quang Ninh officials, most of the bears being kept in Quang Yen Town were hungry and had lost limbs. They were also
covered with wounds, had bare foreheads and shook their heads repeatedly and rubbed their bodies against the cages again and again.

To deal with the situation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has submitted a proposal to the government to request Quang Ninh Province to move all the bears here to Tam Dao Bear Sanctuary.
 
The Quang Ninh People’s Committee is required to inform the bear transfer to the prime minister by September 2015.

The Vietnam Bear Sanctuary was put into operation in 2006 and has rescued more than 100 bears.

Leave your comment on this story