Bear bile farming — extracting bile from living bears through permanent abdominal catheters — is widely condemned as one of the cruellest forms of animal exploitation in existence.
The suffering of bile farm bears is multidimensional: permanent surgical implants cause chronic infection and pain; animals spend years in cages too small to stand upright; the extraction procedure itself involves repeated handling and invasive contact with infected tissue. Rescued bears at Animals Asia sanctuaries show the psychological damage — stereotypic rocking, self-directed aggression, and profound fearfulness — that years of captivity and pain produce. Every component of the practice causes suffering, and humane synthetic alternatives to bear bile have existed for decades.