Bears across multiple species face welfare threats from human-wildlife conflict, bile farming, and habitat loss, with coexistence strategies increasingly replacing lethal management.
Wild bear welfare encompasses some of the most severe ongoing animal suffering: bile farming inflicts chronic physical and psychological torment on tens of thousands of animals through surgical bile extraction devices or repeated milking. The campaign against bile farming has made significant progress, particularly in Vietnam, demonstrating that targeted advocacy combined with rescue and sanctuary programs can directly improve individual welfare at scale. In conflict management, the welfare shift from lethal control to evidence-based coexistence tools has been driven by both wildlife advocacy and growing recognition that lethal management is often ineffective as well as welfare-costly. Bears repeatedly captured, relocated, and killed for livestock depredation represent welfare failures that could be avoided through proactive coexistence infrastructure investment.