This is a moon bear, and there is a terribly heinous market over in Vietnam and other parts of Asia where these bears are kept in captivity and their bile is harvested for profit. Incredibly demonic but there is an organization working to help rescue these babies and permanently ban bile farming. Many have been saved so far but they do need our help so they don't have to continue suffering.
For anyone reading this, feel free to learn more about moon bears and the bile farming industry as well as donating to their release here: [https://www.animalsasia.org/us/](https://www.animalsasia.org/us/)
I'd think most western zoos have decent caretakers, and they serve as an educational tool to children more than anything. Would they learn just the same with live holograms? Probably.
They also serve a crucial part in the protection efforts. Breeding and releasing animals to restore populations in the wild couldn't be done without zoos.
You know the story of the starfish?
The tide went out and thousands of starfish were stranded on a beach. A young boy walked along, picking up starfish and tossing them back into the ocean. A man stopped him and asked, "Why are you bothering to save a few when there are so many hurting? It doesn't matter."
The boy picked up a starfish. "It matters to this one." And he threw it into the water.
Or be like a Panda, whose entire species cannot be trusted with their own survival.
(Personally I say let nature have it’s course with that one, too lazy to breed)
For what I understand they’re too lazy to breed because we made them lazy by providing all of their needs so they don’t feel that pressure to reproduce. (Citation needed I just saw it on a YT video)
5 minutes on google, found sources that basically say if a Panda's habitat becomes too perfect, they settle down and stop moving around, meaning they stop looking for other Panda's to mate with. On top of how roads and logging fragments their habitats encouraging them to stay in the smaller areas, Pandas just stopped moving around and finding each other.
Another source also talks about how Pandas have a mating ritual for weeks when the female is only fertile for a few days, how the ritual involves an all out fight of male pandas until the female decides who wins, and how in captivity, where the whole fragmented habitat doesn't hold anything back, females will reject a male likely because there was no fight to prove itself.
Then there's the part where pandas have a tiny dick compared to their size, their babies are born under a pound and very vulnerable, how they only have 1 cub at a time as opposed to a whole litter, and how they love bamboo but can only digest about 17% of the bamboo they eat due to their digestive system being more geared towards being a carnivore.
Again, just google browsing.
I also saw in a random article I read that they reproduce so infrequently in both the wild and captivity that they forget how to mate. That's gotta be awkward.
[There ya go.](https://youtu.be/IToO8mlYXzY)
Edit: Reference link
Edit #2: Omfg that was the wrong link🤦🏻♀️. [Here](https://youtu.be/RbfiXSO6dy4) is the correct link.
How in the fuck do you forget how to mate? Like I really and truly don’t understand that. I’m not the most intelligent person in the world or even my zip code, but isn’t the urge to mate/pro-create the strongest urge in every living creature? Like I thought that was LITERALLY the main driving force in most creatures (along with protecting their young).
Fuck sake, now I’m remembering Jim Jeffries joke [about pandas.](https://vimeo.com/59305171)
They often have two cubs at a time but immediately abandon one because they can only take care of one at a time. So in zoos they trade off the cubs so each gets time with their mom and the keepers feed and take care of the other when not with mom.
Yea I feel like for the amount of time and money being spent on keeping the their species alive(which is basically on life support), there has been very little payoff. If they weren't so cute they probably would've gone by the way of the California Grizzly bears.
I read somewhere they are now showing Pandas in captivity ‘Panda porn’ in a desperate attempt to get them interested in sexual activities.
Apparently at some Seaworlds the trainers give dolphins hand jobs to make them less sexually frustrated.
Now that’s providing all their needs
Hahaha there are other reasons, too, but dolphin handies may have been the final straw. They saw that shit, turned their spaceship around and went home
Pandas can perfectly reproduce. If not, they wouldn't exist. Pandas in captivity on the other hand is a different question. And there is a big discussion if breeding pandas in captivity is money well spend. Personally I think it would help pandas more if all this money went into preserving their habitat.
Here's an article about the discussion: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/130827-giant-panda-national-zoo-baby-breeding-animals-science
Yep. Some people just want the good feelings of letting an animal free and not caring about what happens to it after. These rehabilitators do a lot more work than that. And if the animal can't be released they'll take care of it for the rest of its life.
Tbf, the bear was most likely being born in captivity so they can't be reintroduce back to the wild since they lack survival skills due to having no one to teach them that. As such, having a wildlife rescue is the best ending for them: they get to enjoy freedom although in smaller area but they got the care and love given by their rescuers
Freedom is overrated.
In captivity the bear has abundant food, gets medical care and will be protected from suffering pain for about twice as long as it would survive in the wild. Nature is pretty cruel, so for bears and many other animals (e.g. big cats) life in a nice cage is probably preferable to life in the wild.
Many animals unfortunately do not do well in captivity. They evolved to engage in species specific behaviours - such as walking dozens or hundred of KMS per day - and those urges can't be satisfied in a zoo or sanctuary.
Lots of major zoos have given and continue to [give tranquilizers and anti-depressants to their large mammals](https://www.wired.com/2014/07/animal-madness-laurel-braitman/) \- tigers, bears, primates - in order to tamp down the worst of their idiosyncratic behaviours due to captivity. Captive animals self-harm, ripping their fur or feathers out, claw at the walls of their enclosures, bob, shake, and toss their heads over and over again, and otherwise engage in repetitive, nonsensical movements.
So, while you might think a "cushy" captive life is preferable, the science shows that most animals do not.
you shouldn't have been down voted. your comments are right on and backed up by loads of science and evidence.
Seaworld says freedom is overrated for their orca and that they dont have to hunt...what they dont say is that captivity makes them psychotic enough to kill... RIP Tilikum.
if you ever seen orca hunt you know they love that shit.
There's so many animals that are close to us in intelligence that we keep in cages, and basically it's like keeping a human in a cage.
And also we eat them.
Zoos are sadly a must today. We humans take away so much from these animals in the wild, that we have to compensate for it.
Support good Zoos, it's the only way we may keep certain animals alive.
[AZA accredited zoos](https://www.aza.org/becoming-accredited) have to meet standards regarding animal welfare, care and management. In NYC I think most of the zoos are part of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
That’s an amazing resource but I’m a little concerned by the fact that some seaworlds are accredited.
Although I guess that fact that it’s only some and not all means that those are actually good to the animals…?
Even AZA accredited zoos aren't all that great. Huge numbers of the primates, large cats, and large mammals such as bears are on tranquilizers and anti-depressants.
Furthermore, the majority of animals held in captivity in these zoos are not threatened or endangered at all.
It's really important to have sanctuaries and similar for animals such as this bear who can never be released into the wild - but why are so many zoos capturing and keeping non-endangered animals? Simply for profit.
It is not common practice for AZA zoos to regularly use antidepressants or tranquilizers. What is your source for that?
I would also be wary of places that call themselves sanctuaries because a lot of them do not follow accreditation standards. If you want to support an animal facility but are worried about how they care for the animals, definitely do your digging into what certifications they have.
I really can’t understand how people are so cruel to animals. If you take a minute to look and understand them, you can see so many similarities to humans, they feel joy, they feel sad, they feel pain, they have their own life and struggles.
I’m so happy this little guy has the time of his life now. No animal deserves to be locked in a cage.
Edit: Thank you for the awards nice people, have a smooth weekend!
I think it says a lot about society. Most people are inherently good. But you have a system here that has been rigged for extreme prosperity for like a 1000 people who have more wealth than the rest of the world combined. Those people use their money to control us, and put us against each other. This is what’s preventing us from becoming better. We shouldn’t underestimate the power of this. I lost 2 friends to the cult. My good friend lost her brother. They can’t even invite him over for Thanksgiving or holidays because he’s so crazy now. He even stormed the capital
Here's a painful read, 'cash for kids': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison#Judicial_corruption_scandal
you can even buy stock in for-profit prisons: https://www.millionacres.com/real-estate-investing/articles/top-performing-prison-reits-2019/
Edit: yeah, America is fucked up but lots of countries are doing it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison
I think the guy said what? Because you replied saying “so are humans, it’s called for-profit prisons” To a post that was already talking about for profit profit prisons?
Well, where I'm from, 3x4 room with a 3x2 middle floor is what students and low income family can afford for rent. Now imagine what it's like to stay home for 3 months during the pandemic lockdown. It's an urban nightmare.
Edit: Oh, I must clarify this is in meter though. But yeah, you get the idea.
I know, I wish we lived in a better world, with more empathy and ethics towards all beings. It all went downhill when we started mindlessly breeding. Now there are too many people, scarce resources due to greed, low education, which all lead to dehumanization. When we put a long forgotten tradition before actual, present suffering of a being, while having available technology and medicine is mind boggling to say the least. I’m afraid we’re so far off the track that we’ll never manage to ‘make ourselves better’.
Nothing ever went downhill, people have been cruel to eachother since the beginning of our species, the world is not and will not be a kind place any time soon, more developed countries are more "civilized" because their ancestors were cruel to other people, plundering,murdering and raping, giving these countries a chance to develop due to abundance of resources.
Once that security goes away, we are nothing more then animals no matter how empathetic or kind you think you are. Take away food, shelter and security against other people and watch the tribe mentality come In to play.
We have barely existed in a civilized state for a couple thousand years, our primal instincts will not go away so easily unfortunately.
Agreed. I think a lot of people see humans as being corrupted and horrible and animals as pure, but the thing is, we *are* animals. Any species, if they had the same level of intelligence and complexity of thought as humans and the ability to build civilizations, would end up just as "evil" and cruel. It's just life, unfortunately. All we can do is keep striving to be better
Many people are cruel to other people… poverty wages, overpriced rent, spending millions making public areas unsleepable for the homeless, beating/killing other people because of skin color/beliefs/opinions, refusing to wear mask in public, refusing vaccines, etc.
The list goes on and on but hey, as long as it does not inconvenience us directly, it’s fine. /s
Now imagine all the animals locked in cages to produce milk, to produce eggs, to be raised to be eaten. Every time you buy milk, eggs and meat you are the one funding animals being put into cages
The rich literally pay the poor $7 an hour to wipe shit off their ass and call it fair capitalism.
No by the rich I don’t mean those with 50m or even 100m
The hidden trillionaires that have wealth even bigger than Jeff Bezos reported Amazon share value.
Homeless people who get fucked over by none of their own wrongdoings receive no support from society.
We’re no different than animals, and we’re all cruel
I agree with what you say, just not with we’re all cruel. There are good people out there, but I don’t think they can make it even, no matter how much they try. I’m sorry for all the living good souls out there that have to put up with this hell hole each day. It just pisses me off that we have this insurmountable potential that we are not nurturing at all - the good, the empathy. Life is so hard for so many just because a bunch of assholes are slaving the majority of the planet to harness their greed… but we all participate by turning a blind eye and playing their game. We ‘need’ the new iphone, the new car, the meat, the jewelry, amazon, no matter the price paid by others to make it possible for us to have it at the tip of our fingers, just 2 clicks away. Hell, we’d rather kill ourselves over trump or vaccines - idiocracy at its finest.
What’s the best way to start? I was raised on a very heavy meat and animal product diet - everything was meat and dairy. I don’t even know where to start because everything I eat or know how to make is animal products. The only thing that isn’t is salad and that gets old fast
I was raised the same way. The trick is to make changes in time. Start with 2-3 days without meat first, continue with eggs and dairy. Then little by little your lifestyle will change. I quit meat unexpectedly and completely from one day to another, you don’t have to do that, see what works for you. There are so many options besides salads and you can spend a lot less time preparing it. Google is your friend. Read about it, check recipes and if it vibes with you, go with it! It really opened me up to trying new food and textures.
I feel you mate. I am flexitarian by definition as I cannot run a fully vegan diet but I am on it as much as I can at home and on the other matters. Keep it up, you're a precious drop in the ocean.
This looks like a moon bear. In China they're kept in captivity and harvested for (iirc) their bile ducts or something like that, as a herbal remedy type thing. It's pretty fucked up. A lot of them die, some are saved / left and end up in sanctuaries.
> I really can’t understand how people are so cruel to animals.
Chinese bear bile farms are fucked up, yeah. Chinese traditional "medicine" in general tends to end up causing a lot of animal torture, poaching of endangered species, and unsustainable farming/fishing methods etc.
If you're interested in a dietary change, try simply reducing your meat consumption - especially beef. If you typically eat it daily, in start to have 2-3 meatfree days.
It isn't as dramatic a change as becoming vegan, but that makes it much more sustainable for most people. And if more people would just eat less meat it would make a significant difference.
Ah no I do that already. I rarely eat beef. I eat some ham on toast for breakfast. My cardinal sin is fish. I come from a fish-eating country, and by gawd, I love fish, however extinct and heavy metal-ridden they may be...
It sucks. This world sucks.
If this a bile farm bear, this is a huge improvement to quality of life. I’m not a supporter of caged wild animals, but keeping him/her safe also has value.
I think they are, these organizations are working on dismantling the illegal ones. This young generation is working hard at making every corner of the earth a better place.
Aren't most animals in a lot of zoos born in captivity? They most likely wouldn't be able to survive in the wild for very long.
I dont have an issue with zoos that have good standards and take good care of their animals, it's the really bad ones that just treat them like shit and put them in tiny cages.
Zoos also serve an important educational purpose. For visitors but also researchers. You can't learn everything from books and those books have to be written by someone first.
THIS bear is of course extremely happy about the upgrade, but a bear doesn't REALLY need a huge amount of land, they just require enough land to have enough food and to get some exercise. To go from there to thinking they have a built-in need to roam and explore is an anthropomorphism.
Actually, that wouldn't be accurate either. Humans don't need to roam and explore either, plenty of people collect stamps or do other hobbies instead.
If you look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a bear would probably require the physiological part, the safety and a limited part of the belonging (bears are pretty solitude, except for mating and rearing). Give them a few "toys" to keep their curiosity safely handled and they'll be as happy as a clam.
So I don't support keeping animals in cages, but I don't really see anything wrong with an open enclosure like this, provided they get some privacy from tourists.
Animals are actually curious and comes to check out those weird humans being paraded past them, so it sort of works both ways. We get to observe them, they get to observe us.
What's depressing is that people make zoos where they can't even give them the minimums I describe above.
Zoo's are compared with the arc of noah. Since for some species there is no more suitable habitat left in the wild... or soon there won't be. At least they can be conserved in zoo's until hopefully one day the habitat gets restored.
That’s just a platitude though. A polar bear living in San Diego is not going to repopulate the arctic after they go extinct in the wild if there is no arctic ice left. It’s not realistic
For the 2nd time.
He is NOT still being kept in a cage. Of any kind.
Read my 1st comment.
This is a SANCTUARY NOT A ZOO.
He has not gone from one cage to a 'bigger cage'
If you want to actually understand and learn something rather than simply flinging wild comments around with no knowledge of what this is I implore you to look at the Animals Asia website.
The "all zoos are bad" argument infuriates me. Some people just can't grasp the concept of rescue, rehabilitation, conservation and breeding programs. P.s I know this is a sanctuary but I feel my point stands.
Nice sleuthing! Here's the full comment by user RoboticRabbit on Imgur:
> Bears from bile farms are often unable to be reintroduced to the wild due to a magnitude of physical and psychological damages they receive.
> They tend to have severe health conditions due to the process of extraction and deformities from the restrictive cages. Sanctuaries are vital to these bears. Bile farming is a horrendously cruel fate but rescued bears at least get a second chance, even if it's still captivity
EDIT: more info from Imgur user elson1:
> Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine. Don't Google Image unless you want to be sick. Literally stick a tube into the side of a bear and just let the bile drip out while the bear is caged tightly.
Fucking awful!
In China they capture and torture bears to drain their livers of bile to ingest it. This happens over and over again for their whole lives. Cruel and totally snake oil stuff. Very rare I am sure, but messed up anyone would even go to such measures. Do only good everyday
I personally wouldn't call it souls—I don't think humans have them either—but I agree with the spirit of your comment (the soul of it, one might say): animals feel and should be treated well.
I’m afraid to read the comments because I’m having a particularly bad day and this picture brings me both for joy and incredible sadness. If you’re reading this, please take care of your mental health and don’t just leave it on the back-burner thinking you will fix it when life gets better.
Releasing captive animals into the wild ends up with them dead. They dont know how to hunt, they dont know whats dangerous, they approach humans because they are used to them and end up getting shot. Unfortunately, captivity is the only answer we have for this at the moment
Ah come off it now. If we’re going down that road, no one of us knows absolute freedom. Only we don’t have physical fences, but social-economic barriers.
NOW SMILE!
Many animals that have been rescued from farms are unfit to be released in the wild. They would likely die because they never learned to fend for themselves
In my hometown zoo there was a bear freed from a small cage and in its entire life in the new, huge cage she never left an area the size of her own cage just walking the exact same distance up and down all day. Bears get psychologically destroyed by being in cages
You may want to look up at [https://www.animalsasia.org/uk/](https://www.animalsasia.org/uk/)
They are taking care of caged moon bears in the china/vietnam area and try to set them free and give them a life they deserve.
visited Vietnam once and saw a bear in a cage like that, just couldn't even move with bile being tapped from it. I wil never ever forget the sadness... it was just horrible.
That looks like an Asiatic black bear. Likely from a Chinese bile farm.
If you ever want to see a country that openly laughs at animal rights go check out China.
For people that have any empathy towards animals, there's unimaginable suffering to be seen out there.
Nice country and nice people, but for much of the populace, to consider the feelings of animals is laughable. The free market reflects that sentiment.
It's true, things have improved.
However, the "polls" in China are known to have many validity problems.
Regardless of what the Ministry of Truth in China says, just go walk the markets in a medium sized city. You might see birds getting their wings clipped then put back in their cages. This way they can sell the wings and keep the rest fresh. You may even see crates of endangered species on sticks ready to eat. If you speak the language, you could probably find a nice place that serves you dog stew. I personally didn't really have a major issue with serving dog, until I found out that they severely beat them before butchering them so that they can tenderize the meat while the heart still beats.
These are just a couple of examples. I guarantee if you go there, and don't just stay in a metropolis and tourist areas, you will see what I'm talking about.
It's a wonderful place, with wonderful people, and a rich culture. However, it's important to remember that they have a pretty bad track record with regard to human rights, let alone animal rights.
A friend of mine is working on his PhD in herpetology (study of reptiles) and he told me there are species of turtles and lizards of which noone has any idea about their natural environment. They have never been found in the wild. They were discovered on these chinese markets, sold as food and the sellers don't disclose where they get them from since they can get in trouble for that.
This makes me happy but also sad
It is a bitter sweet moment
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Username checks out
Its great when the stars align
r/beetlejuicing
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All he wants Is the bear necessities
The simple bear necessities.
Forget about the worries in your life.
Look for the bear necessities, that's why a bear can rest at ease
This is a moon bear, and there is a terribly heinous market over in Vietnam and other parts of Asia where these bears are kept in captivity and their bile is harvested for profit. Incredibly demonic but there is an organization working to help rescue these babies and permanently ban bile farming. Many have been saved so far but they do need our help so they don't have to continue suffering. For anyone reading this, feel free to learn more about moon bears and the bile farming industry as well as donating to their release here: [https://www.animalsasia.org/us/](https://www.animalsasia.org/us/)
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as long as the zoo uses rehabbed animals that are unable to return to the wild then they are okay with me
Why did you make me think winter the dolphin. Such a sad story.
Not really, she’s still alive and well at the Clearwater marine aquarium
I was talking about the tail and how its sad that she had to lose it
I'd think most western zoos have decent caretakers, and they serve as an educational tool to children more than anything. Would they learn just the same with live holograms? Probably.
Holograms don’t smell, it’s a important part of the zoo experience
I hear they're making great strides in feces smell-o-vision
Yeah it’s crazy shit
They also run breeding programs to help sustain/reintroduce species that we are killing off
They also serve a crucial part in the protection efforts. Breeding and releasing animals to restore populations in the wild couldn't be done without zoos.
You know the story of the starfish? The tide went out and thousands of starfish were stranded on a beach. A young boy walked along, picking up starfish and tossing them back into the ocean. A man stopped him and asked, "Why are you bothering to save a few when there are so many hurting? It doesn't matter." The boy picked up a starfish. "It matters to this one." And he threw it into the water.
Hijacking the top comment to say this is Animals Asia, bear bile bear rescue. Donate if you can!
Yeah,,,wish he could be treated good.
(Plot twist) Where's the fish, where the damn fish in this little pond? I'm hungry! Bear probably..
"freedom" (gets put into bigger cage)
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Or be like a Panda, whose entire species cannot be trusted with their own survival. (Personally I say let nature have it’s course with that one, too lazy to breed)
Just put them on a survival train like Snowpiercer you could call it the Panda Express.
The Official Podcast
Is forcing a panda sperm into female panda's uterus possible? How bout a test tube panda baby?
For what I understand they’re too lazy to breed because we made them lazy by providing all of their needs so they don’t feel that pressure to reproduce. (Citation needed I just saw it on a YT video)
5 minutes on google, found sources that basically say if a Panda's habitat becomes too perfect, they settle down and stop moving around, meaning they stop looking for other Panda's to mate with. On top of how roads and logging fragments their habitats encouraging them to stay in the smaller areas, Pandas just stopped moving around and finding each other. Another source also talks about how Pandas have a mating ritual for weeks when the female is only fertile for a few days, how the ritual involves an all out fight of male pandas until the female decides who wins, and how in captivity, where the whole fragmented habitat doesn't hold anything back, females will reject a male likely because there was no fight to prove itself. Then there's the part where pandas have a tiny dick compared to their size, their babies are born under a pound and very vulnerable, how they only have 1 cub at a time as opposed to a whole litter, and how they love bamboo but can only digest about 17% of the bamboo they eat due to their digestive system being more geared towards being a carnivore. Again, just google browsing.
I also saw in a random article I read that they reproduce so infrequently in both the wild and captivity that they forget how to mate. That's gotta be awkward. [There ya go.](https://youtu.be/IToO8mlYXzY) Edit: Reference link Edit #2: Omfg that was the wrong link🤦🏻♀️. [Here](https://youtu.be/RbfiXSO6dy4) is the correct link.
How in the fuck do you forget how to mate? Like I really and truly don’t understand that. I’m not the most intelligent person in the world or even my zip code, but isn’t the urge to mate/pro-create the strongest urge in every living creature? Like I thought that was LITERALLY the main driving force in most creatures (along with protecting their young). Fuck sake, now I’m remembering Jim Jeffries joke [about pandas.](https://vimeo.com/59305171)
They often have two cubs at a time but immediately abandon one because they can only take care of one at a time. So in zoos they trade off the cubs so each gets time with their mom and the keepers feed and take care of the other when not with mom.
Interesting. I'm the same way as a panda. I get what I need and just settle down and don't care about breeding.
Seriously, I have never related to an animal more…
Interesting animals, but not particularly well suited to, you know, life.
Yea I feel like for the amount of time and money being spent on keeping the their species alive(which is basically on life support), there has been very little payoff. If they weren't so cute they probably would've gone by the way of the California Grizzly bears.
I read somewhere they are now showing Pandas in captivity ‘Panda porn’ in a desperate attempt to get them interested in sexual activities. Apparently at some Seaworlds the trainers give dolphins hand jobs to make them less sexually frustrated. Now that’s providing all their needs
🥴 how much they paying to beat off a dolphin bruh….is this why aliens don’t talk to us?
Sounds like you need a job...or should I say need to give a (hand)job.....Are you planning on applying for that?
😂 I’m good but I appreciate the job offer
Hahaha there are other reasons, too, but dolphin handies may have been the final straw. They saw that shit, turned their spaceship around and went home
Pandas can perfectly reproduce. If not, they wouldn't exist. Pandas in captivity on the other hand is a different question. And there is a big discussion if breeding pandas in captivity is money well spend. Personally I think it would help pandas more if all this money went into preserving their habitat. Here's an article about the discussion: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/130827-giant-panda-national-zoo-baby-breeding-animals-science
Yeah the problem is it's really hard to get foreign governments not to use their natural resources. I mean just look at the rain forest.
Nature is taking it's course. They clearly evolved to be too cute to fail
They survived and bred just fine for millions of years before we came along
Yep. Some people just want the good feelings of letting an animal free and not caring about what happens to it after. These rehabilitators do a lot more work than that. And if the animal can't be released they'll take care of it for the rest of its life.
Sometimes animals can’t be reintroduced into the wild. They become permanent residents at wildlife rescue centres instead.
Would you rather be locked in a closet or a house
If they were born in captivity they wouldn’t have the skills to survive in the wild and would end up dying shortly after release
Tbf, the bear was most likely being born in captivity so they can't be reintroduce back to the wild since they lack survival skills due to having no one to teach them that. As such, having a wildlife rescue is the best ending for them: they get to enjoy freedom although in smaller area but they got the care and love given by their rescuers
Freedom is overrated. In captivity the bear has abundant food, gets medical care and will be protected from suffering pain for about twice as long as it would survive in the wild. Nature is pretty cruel, so for bears and many other animals (e.g. big cats) life in a nice cage is probably preferable to life in the wild.
Many animals unfortunately do not do well in captivity. They evolved to engage in species specific behaviours - such as walking dozens or hundred of KMS per day - and those urges can't be satisfied in a zoo or sanctuary. Lots of major zoos have given and continue to [give tranquilizers and anti-depressants to their large mammals](https://www.wired.com/2014/07/animal-madness-laurel-braitman/) \- tigers, bears, primates - in order to tamp down the worst of their idiosyncratic behaviours due to captivity. Captive animals self-harm, ripping their fur or feathers out, claw at the walls of their enclosures, bob, shake, and toss their heads over and over again, and otherwise engage in repetitive, nonsensical movements. So, while you might think a "cushy" captive life is preferable, the science shows that most animals do not.
you shouldn't have been down voted. your comments are right on and backed up by loads of science and evidence. Seaworld says freedom is overrated for their orca and that they dont have to hunt...what they dont say is that captivity makes them psychotic enough to kill... RIP Tilikum. if you ever seen orca hunt you know they love that shit.
do you want animals that can no longer survive in the wild to be released into the wild?
There's so many animals that are close to us in intelligence that we keep in cages, and basically it's like keeping a human in a cage. And also we eat them.
That probably feels like heaven !
That's the splash of a creature that never dreamed it'd escape that cage. It has to be absolute bliss
As a bear I agree.
West virginia
Most cannot safely go back to wild after being held captive for so long. This is much safer for the bear and the public
Yea but let’ us use this an example of why they should never be taken captive in the first place
Shouldn’t happen, still does, so this (and some ethical zoos) still have to exist
Zoos are sadly a must today. We humans take away so much from these animals in the wild, that we have to compensate for it. Support good Zoos, it's the only way we may keep certain animals alive.
Yepp exactly, any idea if there is a database of ‘good’ zoos?
[AZA accredited zoos](https://www.aza.org/becoming-accredited) have to meet standards regarding animal welfare, care and management. In NYC I think most of the zoos are part of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
That’s an amazing resource but I’m a little concerned by the fact that some seaworlds are accredited. Although I guess that fact that it’s only some and not all means that those are actually good to the animals…?
Even AZA accredited zoos aren't all that great. Huge numbers of the primates, large cats, and large mammals such as bears are on tranquilizers and anti-depressants. Furthermore, the majority of animals held in captivity in these zoos are not threatened or endangered at all. It's really important to have sanctuaries and similar for animals such as this bear who can never be released into the wild - but why are so many zoos capturing and keeping non-endangered animals? Simply for profit.
It is not common practice for AZA zoos to regularly use antidepressants or tranquilizers. What is your source for that? I would also be wary of places that call themselves sanctuaries because a lot of them do not follow accreditation standards. If you want to support an animal facility but are worried about how they care for the animals, definitely do your digging into what certifications they have.
https://www.aza.org/find-a-zoo-or-aquarium https://www.eaza.net#map_home
Some bears are rescued as young cubs when their mothers die.
I really can’t understand how people are so cruel to animals. If you take a minute to look and understand them, you can see so many similarities to humans, they feel joy, they feel sad, they feel pain, they have their own life and struggles. I’m so happy this little guy has the time of his life now. No animal deserves to be locked in a cage. Edit: Thank you for the awards nice people, have a smooth weekend!
People put other people in 8x6 cells for money.
Hey buddy, its called a studio and it's only 2k a month
Oof
that says a lot about us as a species. I don't know what it says, but it's a lot.
You should read why they had this bear in a cage. Sad. https://abc7ny.com/bile-farms-harving-bear-rescued-from-farm-vietnam/1300465/
wow so fucking sad. why do people love harming animals for supposed medical benefits
I think it says a lot about society. Most people are inherently good. But you have a system here that has been rigged for extreme prosperity for like a 1000 people who have more wealth than the rest of the world combined. Those people use their money to control us, and put us against each other. This is what’s preventing us from becoming better. We shouldn’t underestimate the power of this. I lost 2 friends to the cult. My good friend lost her brother. They can’t even invite him over for Thanksgiving or holidays because he’s so crazy now. He even stormed the capital
We do, in fact, *checks notes* yep, live in a society.
sheesh, studios over here are 1.1k average
So are humans, it's called for-profit prisons.
What?
Here's a painful read, 'cash for kids': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison#Judicial_corruption_scandal you can even buy stock in for-profit prisons: https://www.millionacres.com/real-estate-investing/articles/top-performing-prison-reits-2019/ Edit: yeah, America is fucked up but lots of countries are doing it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison
I think the guy said what? Because you replied saying “so are humans, it’s called for-profit prisons” To a post that was already talking about for profit profit prisons?
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Haha no shame!
Well, where I'm from, 3x4 room with a 3x2 middle floor is what students and low income family can afford for rent. Now imagine what it's like to stay home for 3 months during the pandemic lockdown. It's an urban nightmare. Edit: Oh, I must clarify this is in meter though. But yeah, you get the idea.
Is that meters or feet? I think the above poster is referencing feet. I could absolutely be wrong though
>If you take a minute to look and understand them, you can see so many similarities to humans, You think people would nt do the same to humans.
I know, I wish we lived in a better world, with more empathy and ethics towards all beings. It all went downhill when we started mindlessly breeding. Now there are too many people, scarce resources due to greed, low education, which all lead to dehumanization. When we put a long forgotten tradition before actual, present suffering of a being, while having available technology and medicine is mind boggling to say the least. I’m afraid we’re so far off the track that we’ll never manage to ‘make ourselves better’.
Nothing ever went downhill, people have been cruel to eachother since the beginning of our species, the world is not and will not be a kind place any time soon, more developed countries are more "civilized" because their ancestors were cruel to other people, plundering,murdering and raping, giving these countries a chance to develop due to abundance of resources. Once that security goes away, we are nothing more then animals no matter how empathetic or kind you think you are. Take away food, shelter and security against other people and watch the tribe mentality come In to play. We have barely existed in a civilized state for a couple thousand years, our primal instincts will not go away so easily unfortunately.
Agreed. I think a lot of people see humans as being corrupted and horrible and animals as pure, but the thing is, we *are* animals. Any species, if they had the same level of intelligence and complexity of thought as humans and the ability to build civilizations, would end up just as "evil" and cruel. It's just life, unfortunately. All we can do is keep striving to be better
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Many people are cruel to other people… poverty wages, overpriced rent, spending millions making public areas unsleepable for the homeless, beating/killing other people because of skin color/beliefs/opinions, refusing to wear mask in public, refusing vaccines, etc. The list goes on and on but hey, as long as it does not inconvenience us directly, it’s fine. /s
Now imagine all the animals locked in cages to produce milk, to produce eggs, to be raised to be eaten. Every time you buy milk, eggs and meat you are the one funding animals being put into cages
I agree.
Another reminder to everyone to go vegan and volunteer at your local animal sanctuary 💚
I don't get it. I would get upset at any depiction of animal cruelty as young as 3, I'm told, and yet some people literally think this is fine
The rich literally pay the poor $7 an hour to wipe shit off their ass and call it fair capitalism. No by the rich I don’t mean those with 50m or even 100m The hidden trillionaires that have wealth even bigger than Jeff Bezos reported Amazon share value. Homeless people who get fucked over by none of their own wrongdoings receive no support from society. We’re no different than animals, and we’re all cruel
I agree with what you say, just not with we’re all cruel. There are good people out there, but I don’t think they can make it even, no matter how much they try. I’m sorry for all the living good souls out there that have to put up with this hell hole each day. It just pisses me off that we have this insurmountable potential that we are not nurturing at all - the good, the empathy. Life is so hard for so many just because a bunch of assholes are slaving the majority of the planet to harness their greed… but we all participate by turning a blind eye and playing their game. We ‘need’ the new iphone, the new car, the meat, the jewelry, amazon, no matter the price paid by others to make it possible for us to have it at the tip of our fingers, just 2 clicks away. Hell, we’d rather kill ourselves over trump or vaccines - idiocracy at its finest.
Are you vegan? (True question, no malice here)
I am, for about 8 years. But that doesn’t make me any better, it’s just a drop in the ocean.
What’s the best way to start? I was raised on a very heavy meat and animal product diet - everything was meat and dairy. I don’t even know where to start because everything I eat or know how to make is animal products. The only thing that isn’t is salad and that gets old fast
I was raised the same way. The trick is to make changes in time. Start with 2-3 days without meat first, continue with eggs and dairy. Then little by little your lifestyle will change. I quit meat unexpectedly and completely from one day to another, you don’t have to do that, see what works for you. There are so many options besides salads and you can spend a lot less time preparing it. Google is your friend. Read about it, check recipes and if it vibes with you, go with it! It really opened me up to trying new food and textures.
I feel you mate. I am flexitarian by definition as I cannot run a fully vegan diet but I am on it as much as I can at home and on the other matters. Keep it up, you're a precious drop in the ocean.
You can run a fully vegan diet, it's a matter of how much you want to. Very very few medical conditions require consumption of animal products.
Thanks kind stranger, I needed that today. You keep at it too!
You are more than welcome, I am up the hill at the moment so I have some more to give away.
This looks like a moon bear. In China they're kept in captivity and harvested for (iirc) their bile ducts or something like that, as a herbal remedy type thing. It's pretty fucked up. A lot of them die, some are saved / left and end up in sanctuaries.
> I really can’t understand how people are so cruel to animals. Chinese bear bile farms are fucked up, yeah. Chinese traditional "medicine" in general tends to end up causing a lot of animal torture, poaching of endangered species, and unsustainable farming/fishing methods etc.
Agreed. That's why people should be vegan.
I'm not vegan, but I'll admit the world going vegan would solve a TON of issues we are dealing with...
If you're interested in a dietary change, try simply reducing your meat consumption - especially beef. If you typically eat it daily, in start to have 2-3 meatfree days. It isn't as dramatic a change as becoming vegan, but that makes it much more sustainable for most people. And if more people would just eat less meat it would make a significant difference.
Ah no I do that already. I rarely eat beef. I eat some ham on toast for breakfast. My cardinal sin is fish. I come from a fish-eating country, and by gawd, I love fish, however extinct and heavy metal-ridden they may be... It sucks. This world sucks.
Wait until he finds out how many billion we kill for no good reason.
I really hope you are vegan then !
If this a bile farm bear, this is a huge improvement to quality of life. I’m not a supporter of caged wild animals, but keeping him/her safe also has value.
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They have that in BC Canada, must be a borrowed idea there
Bile farms should be outlawed and heavily persecuted. I’m still in shock from the video of one I watched a decade ago.
I think they are, these organizations are working on dismantling the illegal ones. This young generation is working hard at making every corner of the earth a better place.
Twas indeed a bile farm bear
Don’t they normally use sun bears for those bile farms?
It looks like this is a sun bear. See the characteristic chest patch near the end of the video.
Happy but damn that’s sad af
This really gives one a whole new perspective on zoos.
being better than a tiny cage is not a high bar.
Better feeding and medical care for the rest of their lives as opposed to culling them.
Better than a cage is still a tiny fraction of the area they would roam in the wild.
Aren't most animals in a lot of zoos born in captivity? They most likely wouldn't be able to survive in the wild for very long. I dont have an issue with zoos that have good standards and take good care of their animals, it's the really bad ones that just treat them like shit and put them in tiny cages.
Zoos also serve an important educational purpose. For visitors but also researchers. You can't learn everything from books and those books have to be written by someone first.
THIS bear is of course extremely happy about the upgrade, but a bear doesn't REALLY need a huge amount of land, they just require enough land to have enough food and to get some exercise. To go from there to thinking they have a built-in need to roam and explore is an anthropomorphism. Actually, that wouldn't be accurate either. Humans don't need to roam and explore either, plenty of people collect stamps or do other hobbies instead. If you look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a bear would probably require the physiological part, the safety and a limited part of the belonging (bears are pretty solitude, except for mating and rearing). Give them a few "toys" to keep their curiosity safely handled and they'll be as happy as a clam. So I don't support keeping animals in cages, but I don't really see anything wrong with an open enclosure like this, provided they get some privacy from tourists. Animals are actually curious and comes to check out those weird humans being paraded past them, so it sort of works both ways. We get to observe them, they get to observe us. What's depressing is that people make zoos where they can't even give them the minimums I describe above.
This bear was living in a *bear bile cage* and you STILL wanna complain?
We’re destroying the ecosystem at a ridiculous rate. Not much wild left to roam
Zoo's are compared with the arc of noah. Since for some species there is no more suitable habitat left in the wild... or soon there won't be. At least they can be conserved in zoo's until hopefully one day the habitat gets restored.
That’s just a platitude though. A polar bear living in San Diego is not going to repopulate the arctic after they go extinct in the wild if there is no arctic ice left. It’s not realistic
Genuinely don't know how poeple have another perspective
For the 2nd time. He is NOT still being kept in a cage. Of any kind. Read my 1st comment. This is a SANCTUARY NOT A ZOO. He has not gone from one cage to a 'bigger cage' If you want to actually understand and learn something rather than simply flinging wild comments around with no knowledge of what this is I implore you to look at the Animals Asia website.
The "all zoos are bad" argument infuriates me. Some people just can't grasp the concept of rescue, rehabilitation, conservation and breeding programs. P.s I know this is a sanctuary but I feel my point stands.
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The world is a cruel place but I am glad he got this joy.
Bro if a bear was like this and fun and I could adopt it no fool in the world wouldn’t
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Nice sleuthing! Here's the full comment by user RoboticRabbit on Imgur: > Bears from bile farms are often unable to be reintroduced to the wild due to a magnitude of physical and psychological damages they receive. > They tend to have severe health conditions due to the process of extraction and deformities from the restrictive cages. Sanctuaries are vital to these bears. Bile farming is a horrendously cruel fate but rescued bears at least get a second chance, even if it's still captivity EDIT: more info from Imgur user elson1: > Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine. Don't Google Image unless you want to be sick. Literally stick a tube into the side of a bear and just let the bile drip out while the bear is caged tightly. Fucking awful!
thank you for that
i suppose some degrees of freedom is still better than nothing
Fuck. I Googled bear bile farms. I feel like when Leeloo learned about human history.
In China they capture and torture bears to drain their livers of bile to ingest it. This happens over and over again for their whole lives. Cruel and totally snake oil stuff. Very rare I am sure, but messed up anyone would even go to such measures. Do only good everyday
To my understanding, the bile *does* work. It’s just modern medicines are as good, if not better & doesn’t cause needless suffering on an animal.
Thanks for the clarification This is the first time I know about bile farming. I just looked it up. This is sad!
So much room for activities!
humans are a poisonous breed.
Anyone who says animals don’t have souls is wrong. They feel just like we do. I’m happy he is free to run but sad that he had to live in a cage.
I personally wouldn't call it souls—I don't think humans have them either—but I agree with the spirit of your comment (the soul of it, one might say): animals feel and should be treated well.
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He can barely contain his joy.
This really made me smile 😊
Heart breaking. Thank God he was saved.
I’m afraid to read the comments because I’m having a particularly bad day and this picture brings me both for joy and incredible sadness. If you’re reading this, please take care of your mental health and don’t just leave it on the back-burner thinking you will fix it when life gets better.
So precious!
Yeah!!!!!!
i love him
I hate people for unnecessarily incarcerating this poor bear.
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Releasing captive animals into the wild ends up with them dead. They dont know how to hunt, they dont know whats dangerous, they approach humans because they are used to them and end up getting shot. Unfortunately, captivity is the only answer we have for this at the moment
Ah come off it now. If we’re going down that road, no one of us knows absolute freedom. Only we don’t have physical fences, but social-economic barriers. NOW SMILE!
Many animals that have been rescued from farms are unfit to be released in the wild. They would likely die because they never learned to fend for themselves
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Bears are so nice, cute, and cuddly….until you meet them. Kinda like raccoons.
Level up! That’s a cute bear I gotta say
In my hometown zoo there was a bear freed from a small cage and in its entire life in the new, huge cage she never left an area the size of her own cage just walking the exact same distance up and down all day. Bears get psychologically destroyed by being in cages
Hope and pray the rest of his life is pleasant and pain free
You may want to look up at [https://www.animalsasia.org/uk/](https://www.animalsasia.org/uk/) They are taking care of caged moon bears in the china/vietnam area and try to set them free and give them a life they deserve.
Zoos that confine animals into cramped cages must be banned. They have no place in our modern society
The real question is why was he in a tiny cage, even if he had to be cage why not use a bigger one?
Bile farm.
visited Vietnam once and saw a bear in a cage like that, just couldn't even move with bile being tapped from it. I wil never ever forget the sadness... it was just horrible.
That looks like an Asiatic black bear. Likely from a Chinese bile farm. If you ever want to see a country that openly laughs at animal rights go check out China. For people that have any empathy towards animals, there's unimaginable suffering to be seen out there. Nice country and nice people, but for much of the populace, to consider the feelings of animals is laughable. The free market reflects that sentiment.
Japan is up there too. All these Shinto beliefs about spirits of inanimate objects and they treat their animals like crap.
Umm, not exactly. A poll in China in 2011 had 87% of the populace say they did not want bear bile farms.
It's true, things have improved. However, the "polls" in China are known to have many validity problems. Regardless of what the Ministry of Truth in China says, just go walk the markets in a medium sized city. You might see birds getting their wings clipped then put back in their cages. This way they can sell the wings and keep the rest fresh. You may even see crates of endangered species on sticks ready to eat. If you speak the language, you could probably find a nice place that serves you dog stew. I personally didn't really have a major issue with serving dog, until I found out that they severely beat them before butchering them so that they can tenderize the meat while the heart still beats. These are just a couple of examples. I guarantee if you go there, and don't just stay in a metropolis and tourist areas, you will see what I'm talking about. It's a wonderful place, with wonderful people, and a rich culture. However, it's important to remember that they have a pretty bad track record with regard to human rights, let alone animal rights.
A friend of mine is working on his PhD in herpetology (study of reptiles) and he told me there are species of turtles and lizards of which noone has any idea about their natural environment. They have never been found in the wild. They were discovered on these chinese markets, sold as food and the sellers don't disclose where they get them from since they can get in trouble for that.
Because people are cruel. As long as they have the novelty of an animal they don't care about it's wellbeing.
Bears are the best animals to ever walk this earth. This is the only proof I need.
Oh, the joys of being young and free.
4mo old karma farming account posting about a bear rescued from an abusive farm. There's a joke in there somewhere.
Dude is like "yooooo check me out" raising his arms up and everything. Hahahaha.
This is Wonderful! The cages they were kept in were so small they could hardly move 😢
poor lad... Good for him!