VietNamNet Bridge – In the last three years, many bears were trained at a bear rescue station to resume their natural instinct, but they have not been released back to the forest yet--why?
A timber processing firm in the southern province of Dong Nai has recently handed over seven Tibetan bears to the bear rescue station based in the Cat Tien National Park, raising the total number of bears at the station to 35.

This station is specialized in training bears to resume their wild instinct so they can live as wild animals once they are released back to the jungle.

The training site is a one hectare zone surrounded by iron fence, with trees planted inside. However, since the station opened in October 2008, with 16 bears, not a single bear has been left the station, said Nguyen Vu Khoi,, director of the WAR, which sponsors the bear rescue station.

Khoi explained that all bears trained at the station are old and weak, which have lived in cage for a dozen of years. Thus, their wild instinct has not been recovered after three years at the station.

Asking Tran Van Thanh, director of the Cat Tien National Park—of why didn’t the park persuade the station to release bears back to the forest, Thanh said that these bears were confined for gall exploitation for many years, so they are very weak now. If they return to the forest, they would be easily seized again by illegal hunters.

An employee at the station said that some bears would be unable to return to the jungle forever. These are bears which had their legs broken by traps or cut off by breeders to sell to restaurants.

An expert said that bears at the station in the Cat Tien National Park and other stations could be reared for genetic preservation and raising breeds. These bear could not return to the forest because they would be easily caught by hunters.

Over 4,000 bears in cages

“They anaesthetize and tie the bears. After that they continuously thrust long needles into bears stomach to seek the position of the gallbladder,” an employee of the rescue station described the painful gall collecting method at bear farms. Many bears died because of stomach infection.

According to the Forest Protection Agency, around 4,000 bears are being caged at bear farms to serve as pets or for gall exploitation. When bears are taken to bear rescue centers, they are all disabled.

Mai Anh