Hanoi Forest Ranger Unit has rescued and transferred an Asian black bear illegally kept in Phuc Tho District to the city animal rescue centre on September 22.

Phuc Tho District is well-known for raising bears for their bile. There are thousands of bear being raised in the district and normally, the owners extract bile twice a year. In order to make sure that the bear won't be killed off for meat or sold to restaurants, the bears all have chips implanted by the rangers.

The Asian black bear was found at a farm in Can Tien Canh Town while the rangers were reviewing and inspecting the number of captive bears from September 8 to 16. It doesn't have any implanted chip and was found in good health condition.

The Asian black bear found in Phuc Tho District

This is the first major inspection in Hanoi held by Hanoi Forest Ranger Unit and World Animal Protection Organisation. This is also the first achievement after Hanoi Forest Ranger Unit started tightening management over captive bears since August.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung, deputy head of Education for Nature-Vietnam, said, "We welcome such positive change and determination of forest ranger unit. All illegally captured bears should be freed. There are about 1,200 captive bears in Vietnam now, a huge decrease from the 4,300 recorded in 2005. We believe we are getting closer to the goal to completely end bear farming in Vietnam if other agencies also have the same determination."

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that as of 2014, Vietnam still has 430 bear farms with a total 1,245 bears.