Portland Animal Group Helping Bears in China
This summer's Olympic Games in Beijing are putting new focus on China's handling of human rights. But there's another area getting new attention — animal rights, and a group from Portland is helping with that effort.
Sun bears and the more common moon bears are practically a walking drug store, farmed for their bile and for gall bladders used in traditional Chinese Medicine to treat everything from eye issues to the liver.
More than 7,000 of the bears live and die in torturous conditions at legal bear farms. The bile is painfully drained from them with crude catheters or open wounds.
Through diplomacy and pressure the rescue group Animals Asia has rescued 225 bears from the farms and brought them to its center in Sichuan. The Chinese Government has promised to turn over more by the summer Olympics. But the bears arrive in dire condition, requiring immediate surgery.
That's where the help from Oregon comes in. When word of Animals Asia's efforts reached the Oregon Zoo, a number of volunteers wanted to aid the effort. So they picked up their knitting needles and went to work, making mittens to keep the rescued bears warm during surgery.
Portland Animal Group Helping Bears in China — kgw.com
If you're interested in helping out with bear mittens, Twisted has further details on patterns and where to send the finished articles.