China has approved the use of bear bile to treat critically ill coronavirus patients.

[Grumpyoldpersonwithcats]

From the BBC website.

Words fail me.

oh ffs well that's the bear population getting abused and decimated then

My response was similar to yours. I just don't know what to say to that.

Jesus christ.

rhino horn anyone?

I'd imagine that ground bats and pangolins will be approved next.

I absolutely despair. I read yesterday that one state in China had banned eating dog meat.... then you get this.

What the fuck do they think bear bile is going to do for crying out loud

I can imagine the world showing a lot less tolerance towards some of the things that go on in China with animals after all this is over. There may be a bit of a backlash - not a bad thing.

That is a bit hard on the bears. They don't kill them apparently, but farm them like cows (not in good conditions)

It's not entirely woo, but I would have thought using it for this virus probably was.

Our NHS offered Homeopathy last I looked. Maybe they will start giving magic water to patients when the other stuff fails.

I guess we need to prepare for Pandemic 2.0, then?

If it 'works' (as in, they bullshit the world again), does anyone think other countries would try it?

Bear Bile has been used for a long time there as an anti-inflammatory

Great! Are they sure there is no other virus lurking in the bears ? Awful. Can’t they ever think of anything that doesn’t involve killing animals?? WE DONT OWN THEM.

Not good is the understatement of the century, sadly. In the worst cases the bears are subjected to as much as 30 years of torture. Kept in tiny cages with a hole to their gall bladder or a tube, being continually drained.

They haven’t learnt a bl**dy thing then!! 🤬

Pamela I agree, truly disgusting, just when you think they can't get any worse, they do.

That is a bit hard on the bears.

Yeah just a bit.

Wild and endangered animals that other counties pump a lot of money into rescuing are being caught, trapped in tiny cages where they can only lie on the sides, can’t stand or move around, tubes inserted into their stomachs and bile excruciatingly extracted for what the Chinese believe is a potential cure.

Just like they believe shark fins, turtle eggs and koala meat is a cure for other ailments but science has repeatedly proven them wrong.

I take it everyone on the thread is a vegan?

Such a western perspective. Gelatin in haribo? Fine. Animal products in vaccines? No problem. Bear bile used in Chinese medicine? GOD THEY'RE DISGUSTING.

Not quite as bad as the British government which has completely failed its citizens. Which has managed to test 2000 of 500,000 NHS staff, while standing behind a podium with "Protect the NHS". Which let thousands of Madrid fans fly into Liverpool during a pandemix when everyone could see what was happening in Spain. Which did not sign up for the EU ventilator scheme because it thought it might look bad.

I take it everyone on the thread is a vegan?

Right on time.

What kind of attitude is this?

‘Ah well, in this country we slaughter farm animals so we really shouldn’t have a problem with China torturing an endangered species for fuck all’

Get a grip.

Keeping a bear alive in a cage, in pain for many years, while it has a tube to its bile duct for barbaric 'medicinal' purposes is a BILLION MILES away from farming animals used for meat - yes I know there are some people who do not keep animals in humane conditions, blah blah, but you really cannot equate this FFS!

I don't think I can take much more of this. What a disgustingly cruel, depressing world we live in. China should face severe sanctions for the chaos it has inflicted but I doubt it will happen.

Froq the issue is the superiority. I'm not vegan btw I'm a meat eater but calling the Chinese people "disgusting barbaric morons" because they happen to torture and kill different animals to us is imperialist racist bullshit.