Breeding bear bears: The situation of raising bears is significantly reduced

After one year of managing captive bears by attaching chips, there were 4,349 captive bears in the country and so far, the number of bears has tended to decrease .

Mounting the chip - a natural solution to managing captive bears - is considered to be quite effective when the number of bears over a year has decreased significantly. Talking to VietNamNet reporter, Mr. Chu Ngoc Quan, specialist of CITES Office (Forest Protection Department - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) stated more clearly the status of bears kept in Vietnam after being chip mounted.

Specialist who reads the chip reader on the bear body (Photo: NVKhoi)

Mr. Quan said, since the chip was attached to the bear, the collection of bile and trade in bear-related products has decreased markedly. Initially, the chip assembly created a wave of protests by the owners, but, in terms of management, it was obvious that the error was created by bear farmers. Attaching the chip is a humane and humane solution to the bear that should have been confiscated and disposed of immediately.

- Is chip assembly effective if ranger forces do not check regularly, especially when they continue to reproduce in captivity?

According to Decision No. 02 / QD-BNN and Decision No. 47/2006 / QD-BNN dated June 6, 2006 issued with the Regulation on management of captive bears, local forest protection agencies must check every 6 months. (district level) and 1 year / time (provincial level). In general, up to this point, it is good to attach the chip to the bears. The number of individual bears only decreases, does not increase, only weak and dies.

The total number of bears after attaching chips across the country is 4,349, the most are Nghe An 578, Hai Phong 521, Ha Tay 551 . Although there is no exact data, but I think Ha Tay has decreased. 15 children, Thai Binh 2 children .

Regarding the breeding of bears, no scientific document has been published yet or any decision is recognized by law and society. In fact, in some sporadic households, households have been able to do this by creating a suitable natural breeding environment to reproduce. This has been successful in China.

If the bear breeds after the chip is attached, the owner is raised no more than 1 year and must return it to the local ranger, because the criteria for attaching the chip to the bear are to prevent the next generation of bears from suffering the same fate like their parents - must live in prison terms and be savagely exploited as ever. If confiscated and destroyed, it is contrary to the humanitarian spirit when handling wild animals.

- Has there been any document regulating the conditions of breeding facilities and bears? In the case of a bear, which threatens people's lives, how will the owner be handled?

There are regulations on safety conditions for raising bears, but there is no specific regulation on how the barn is, how many meters high . but only general. Because the state advocates not to popularize and expand bear farming, we do not issue specific regulations on the process of raising bears and technical standards of breeding facilities. We only require farmers to be responsible for not letting bear farming affect the environment or threaten the lives of surrounding people.

Photo of a bear caged in a household in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: NV Khoi)

In addition, to anticipate the possibility of personal enmity in life leading to the release of harmful bears, mounting chips will force him to be responsible for his bears.

In case the bear bears are barren, life-threatening, farmers must bear civil or criminal liability according to current law.

- Why do we not allow to exploit bear bile but decided to agree to attach the chip to keep it? Does this facilitate the trading of bear-related products?

Breeding bears are illegal, can be confiscated and processed at any time. The state cannot afford to support an illegal activity (raising bear bile), but cannot confiscate for a while to rescue or destroy. Therefore, the situation solution is to attach chips to manage farmers for the rest of the lives of bears who are kept captive and prevent wild bear replacements from feeding on farms.

At present, we only control the relative exploitation of bear bile due to the perception of the effect of bile beginning to change. Moreover, the chip mounting for bears makes farmers much more aware. Besides, many people have real feelings for bears, so they don't take honey anymore.

I take, for example, during a chip fitting for the 8-pack bear (sun bear) in Binh Duong, the veterinarians checked that there was no injection. The owner stated that he had raised them since he was a small child, and kept playing, not exploiting honey. Or recently, I went to check bears in Ha Tay to see that the bile stings had been scarred for a long time. Bears are completely healthy, with no signs of being damaged by bile extraction. The head of the household still raises bears even if he has to compensate tens of millions of dong each month.

Bear rescue center on Tam Dao (Vinh Phuc) also received many phones from people voluntarily bringing bears, not taking any money because they did not have enough money to care and did not want to kill it.

Attaching the chip is for the purpose of fixing the number of captive bears in the past, moving towards ending illegal bear captivity in Vietnam. It is also the commitment of the Forest Protection Department to international organizations when implementing this project. The captive bear will gradually decrease over time - a factor that shows that chip mounting is effective, avoiding adding bears from the wild. Perhaps, 5-7 years after the cruelty of capturing and exploiting bear bile will no longer exist in Vietnam.

Ha Yen (done)