which species did she mention? there is an ongoing problem with a cruel practice of bile being collected from an endanged species of Asian bear. The bile is valued for traditional medicine.
This practice is now illegal in China (it was already highly illegal elsewhere in Asia – being one reason the bears became endangered in the first place!).
It does not occur in richer countries like Singapore and Malaysia, as they have better income streams such as the high-tech industries and high-end tourism. That said, they don’t have many of these bears either! – they have destroyed much of the habitat 🙁 )
Anything which can be done to stamp out the practice, and return the bears to more appropriate habitats (after veterinary treatment) is clearly laudable, but there is a wider issue about this.
The people doing this are poor farmers in poor areas; and it is is a major source of income. If they are simply busted under Chinese law, they can face the death penalty.
The land they are in may also be wanted by richer groups of people for other purposes.
IT would be a very simple thing for a corrupt village governor to close down the bear farm due to “Western Pressure”, and simply execute villagers for “wildlife crimes” (or extort substantial bribes from the bear farmers for not turning over the place).
The “cleansed” area can then be redeveloped, and Westerners won’t complain when its spun as “cruel bear farmers were brought to justice”.
Thankfully there is a positive solution; China’s massive advances in science and technology have created a synthetic chemical which has been found to be as good as the natural bear bile, and does not require the cruel treatment of any bears.
However, without scrutiny from independent observers; there is an extreme danger that in countries such as China which do not as yet enjoy as full a level of human rights as the West, “animal rights” could be used to eliminate unwanted indigenous peoples from certain areas.
By all means this lady should advertise her campaign, but she should expect some questioning on how her campaign is are working with the authorities and the locals in a transparent manner to ensure animal rights protection does not lead to human rights abuses.
