South Korea announces an end to bear bile farming!
News
After years of campaigning with our supporters and partners, South Korea’s bear bile industry will end.
Header image credit: istock.com
On January 26, the South Korean Ministry of Environment has signed a joint agreement with the Bear Farmers Association and key local animal protection organizations. The agreement sets out a commitment to prohibit bear bile farming and bile extraction from January 1st, 2026, and that the signatories agree to co-operate to humanely conserve and care for the remaining live bears.
With your support, we've been working hard in partnership with Green Korea United to end this cruel industry since 2003. This included negotiating an agreement with the Bear Farmers Association and the government to have bears farmed for their bile sterilized to ensure that this will be the last generation of bears to suffer in captivity. Together, we've campaigned to end illegal and legal bear bile farming in South Korea. Forever.
Currently, it is illegal to extract bile from bears in South Korea while they are alive. However, it is legal to slaughter the animals for their whole gall bladder for use in Traditional Asian Medicine when they are 10 years old.
With the agreement, and the necessary legislative framework to be put in place in the interim, the practice of cruelly exploiting bears as commodities will be abolished once and for all, ending the 40-year industry.
Maya Pastakia, Global Campaign Manager – Wildlife, Not Medicine, at World Animal Protection said:
“This is the result that we, in partnership with Green Korea United, have been tirelessly campaigning and working towards for over 18 years - we are absolutely thrilled. Captive bears are cruelly exploited and commodified. They live out their lives in tiny, cramped cages, enduring immense mental and physical suffering - unable to climb trees, play and forage for food as they would in the wild.
“The South Korean government has taken a bold stand for bears - something made all the more impactful by the Bear Farmers Association and animal welfare organizations joining hands and taking this momentous decision.
“The agreement sends a clear and positive signal that the cruel practice of bear bile farming is no longer acceptable in a modern country, especially since herbal alternatives are readily available. Bears are not medicine. They are sentient beings and belong in the wild.”
Pictured: A bear used in the bile industry, South Korea. Credit: Green Korea United
In more good news, the government is also planning to construct a new shelter in Guyre-gun that will accommodate 49 bears, and another wildlife sanctuary in Seocheon-gun, that will home about 70 bears. We welcome this development but urge the government to ensure that enough sanctuary spaces are created to house all remaining bears after January 2026 and that a plan to humanely manage the bears is implemented in the interim.
Kyoungsun Woo, Co-Director of Green Korea United said:
“The agreement to end the bear bile farming industry is the outcome of a joint effort from those citizens who pursued their interest in this issue and participated in the rescue campaigns. We urge the Ministry of Environment to stop being reactive and come forward using today’s declaration to mark the beginning of the end to this industry.
“The Ministry of Environment should be proactive and take action to ensure that the shelters for the bears to be built in Gurye and Seocheon will play their role as the national facilities to safely protect the remaining bears left on the farms.”
Between 2014–2017, the Ministry of Environment sterilized 967 bile bears held in captivity for their bile. With the completion of the sterilization program, the bile bear population has steadily declined by 75%. Today, across South Korea, 360 bears remain on farms, compared to 1,400 in the mid-2000s when the industry was at its peak.
Sadly, there are approximately 24,000 bears in Asia kept in captivity for their bile to be harvested for the Traditional Medicine industry.
With you by our side, we'll continue to work to end the bear bile trade in other parts of Asia, notably Vietnam and China, working to protect bears and ensure this is the last generation to suffer.
This year we mark your 30-year anniversary, working to protect bears. During this period, over 800 bears around the world have been rescued and rehomed, you've helped design and fund 12 bear sanctuaries globally, and worked in 25 countries to help captive bears. This is in addition the mass sterilization initiatives, consumer campaigns, and government lobbying. Thank you!
The landmark decision made by the South Korean Government to protect bears from a life of cruelty for the bear bile trade, wouldn’t happen without the generosity from our donors. Donate now and your gift will set the foundation for our work in 2022, which will lead to even more animals being freed from their cages.