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Paw for banquets, a
rare and precious commodity The bear farm manager pointed to us and said, "When your Taiwanese merchants come to buy the bile, they would usually ask for one or two paws. The Taiwanese, Hong Kong, and Cantonese like the paws best, and they can afford them. Where a bear farm is near,
it is popular to eat bear paws. In one of the restaurants
beside the highway in the Yunnan province, a waitress greeted
us before we barely stopped our car. I asked her if they had
any bear paws. "Are you Taiwanese? Do you want to have
it here or take it away? We just ordered two." In the
kitchen, we saw a big black bear's paw. The restaurant manager
asked for 2000 yuan ($259) per kilo. He takes a scale and
weighs it. It's 1.6 kilo. "You can take it for 3000 yuans."
"This is first-rate goods," he said, " it is
from a big wild bear just sent over from Ruili. If it is from
the bear farm, it would be of inferior quality." The restaurant manager said, "Many Taiwanese come here to eat bear paws. Some of them even take the paws back. There are two ways to evade inspection. One is to cut off the nails and hairs and cut the paw into small pieces, after which you cannot tell it is bear's paw. Alternatively, cooked paws are put in a thermos to be taken away. Recently, a Taiwanese mother took the thermos to catch her flight. We learned this trick from the Taiwanese." The manager sees that we showed little interest for paws. He rushes us to the kitchen and tries to market his other stuff. Besides the bear paws, they have a leopard that was just skinned, and a piece of elephant tusk. "The leopard is really cheap, only 150 yuans per kilo, but the tusk is more expensive than paws, 3000 yuan a kilo." "You guys are so obvious, are you not afraid of the police?" The manager laughed, "No problem. The local policemen are quite acquainted with us. They often come by to eat bear paws. They won't arrest us." Local policemen conspire in
this crime. What is more outrageous, even the governmental
Wild Animal Shelter becomes a major provider of the bear paws.
In the suburb of Kunming, there is a "Yunnan Wild Animal Adoption and Protection Center." We spot there scores of adopted Malay bears. The attendant who is feeding the bears tells us these bears were meant to be smuggled through the border into Yunnan. They were intercepted by the police at the border, and then sent here. Just when we were thinking how lucky these bears were for not having to suffer in the bear farm, the attendant adds, "After a while, when they are fattened, we will sell them to state-owned bear farms. After going through some extra procedures, they would end up in the bear farm anyway." When we leave the place, looking at the big sign "Wild Animal Adoption and Protection Center" hanging there, we cannot help feeling the absurdity of this world. For more information please
contact : Asians For Humans, Animals & Nature |