Ben Tre(VNA) – FOUR PAWS Viet on November 15 received an Asiatic black bear namedTrang, the last bear kept in private farm in the Mekong Delta province of BenTre, putting an end to bear bile farming in the province.

Trang, a 139-kg femalebear, has been kept by family of a local woman named Vo Thi Kim Tuyen in PhuHao village, Phu Hung commune, the provincial capital of Ben Tre since 2002.

It made Ben Tre the 23rd bear farm-free province of the country.

It was a joint effortof Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV) and the Ben Tre Forest ProtectionDepartment in convincing bear owners to voluntarily transfer the bear to theFOUR PAWS Viet’s Bear Sanctuary in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

Director of the FOURPAWS Viet Ngo Thi Mai Huong said the centre has teamed up with other non-governmentalorganisations (NGOs) to encourage bear owners across Vietnam to voluntarily giveup the bears they held as bear is an endangered wild animal that needsprotection.

It was estimated thatclose to 800 bears are still being kept in captivity in the country, she noted,adding that many owners now want to transfer their bears and rescue centres andsanctuaries are ready to take care of the bears and allow them to live in thenatural environment.

FOUR PAWS Viet, an animalwelfare sister organisation of FOUR PAWS International in Vietnam, was foundedin 2017 to implement a long-term strategy for the rescue of bears being heldcaptive on bile farms and to make contribution to nature protection andconservation in Vietnam.

Prior to this,the NGO had sponsored its Vietnamese partners to build the Ninh Binh BearSanctuary. The first phase of the site covers 3.6 hectares and offer suitableaccommodation for up to 44 bears. Once the second phase completes, the entiresite will cover an area of over 9.7 hectares to house up to 100 bears.

According to ENV, thenumber of bears in captivity in Vietnam sharply declined between 2005 and July2018 from 4,300 to 780. They had been caged to harvest bile, a digestive fluidused in traditional Eastern medicine. Bear bile farming was outlawed in thecountry in 1992 but owners were not forced to give up the bears they held, onlyserving to prolong the harmful practice.

In 2017, thegovernment of Vietnam agreed a plan with non-profit group Animals Asia to shutdown all bear farms in the country and move all remaining captive bears tosanctuaries. -VNA