Bear bile farming keeps Asiatic black bears in crush cages for years to extract bile for traditional medicine. This practice is widely condemned by welfare scientists and veterinarians.
Bears in bile farms endure among the most severe, prolonged welfare harms documented in any agricultural context. Chronic confinement in crush cages prevents all natural movement. Extraction methods cause ongoing infection, pain, and organ damage. Bears develop stereotypic head-swaying and self-mutilation from psychological distress. The wounds created for bile extraction never heal properly and become chronically infected. Animals that survive for years on farms are profoundly physically and psychologically damaged by their experience.