Traditional Chinese medicine uses bear bile, pangolin scales, tiger bone, and other animal-derived ingredients — creating significant welfare and conservation harms.
TCM animal ingredient welfare spans farming (bears in bile farms) and wild capture (pangolins, rhinos, tigers). Bile farming causes continuous suffering through invasive extraction procedures, inadequate housing for large, intelligent bears, and absence of any behaviours these animals need. Wild capture depletes wild populations and individual animals suffer during capture and transport. The market framing as medicine creates particular resilience to welfare campaigns — people believe they are treating illness. The most effective interventions work within TCM culture to promote herbal alternatives while building relationships with practitioners who share welfare concerns.