Animals Asia

Rescued bears play inside the compound operated by Animals Asia in Vietnam.

Dozens of bears rescued from farms that harvest their bile face eviction, according to a wildlife group that operates the rescue center in Vietnam. The group suspects a national park director and his daughter are behind the effort, reportedly in order to turn the land into an eco-tourism area.

"Should we be asked to relocate, it would take at least two years to construct a new sanctuary," Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson told NBC News.

The biggest concern is what happens to the 104 bears if they're evicted before a new site is built -- especially if it means returning them to cages like the ones they were kept in to milk their bile for traditional medicines sought in Vietnam and China.

"Moving our bears from their established groups in outdoor enclosures back into cages and away to a new location will have unimaginable negative effects on their behavior and psychological well-being," said Animals Asia veterinarian Kirsty Officer. "It will undo much of the work that has been put into making them feel safe and relaxed at our sanctuary."

"One example is a young sun bear called Sassy," added Annemarie Weegenaar, who manages the group's bear team. "Whenever there are loud noises or changes to her environment, such as new bears moving into her den, she gets very upset. She paces rapidly for long periods of time and often has a reduction in appetite. Our bear managers have been training her for over two years to desensitize her. Loading her into a cage and transporting her would cause her unimaginable stress."

Related: Two bear cubs at Vietnam center become poster children

The eviction order came from the Agriculture Ministry, which in turn said the Defense Ministry had issued the directive, Animals Asia said when it launched a letter-writing campaign Tuesday.

Animals Asia

A rescued bear hangs out at Animal Asia's compound in Vietnam.

Vietnam's earlier support for the rescue center "is being undermined by a park director and his undue influence over the Ministry of Defense," Tuan Bendixsen, the group's Vietnam director, alleged in a statement to the media. "This is not a defense issue; it's an issue of profit."

The group said Do Dinh Tien, the director of Tam Dao National Park, had earlier lobbied the ministry to declare the area of "national defense significance." The rescue center is inside the national park.

"It is believed that he intends to hand the land over to the Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company, in which his daughter has an investment," Animals Asia alleged. "The company has submitted an application for development of an 'eco-tourism park' and hotels."

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Animals Asia estimates that more than 10,000 bears are kept on bile farms in China, sometimes for 30 years while their bile is extracted with catheters. In Vietnam, the estimate is 2,400 bears.

Bear bile has an acid that traditional Chinese medicine values as a remedy for various ailments, including fever, and to protect the liver. 

"We are desperate to ensure that the rescue center is not closed down and relocated," said Robinson. "The welfare of 104 bears, who have already suffered enough, would be seriously compromised, and the rescue center and $2 million in donations would be lost."

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Animals Asia

Two bear cubs recovered from suspected poachers play at Animals Asia's bear rescue center in Tam Dao, Vietnam.

Two brother bear cubs rescued from suspected smugglers in Vietnam have become poster children for a campaign against the use of capturing and harvesting bears for their bile. 

The two men arrested said "they bought the cubs for $1,500" and were "going to sell them for a much higher price," most likely to a farm that harvests bear bile, Tuan Bendixsen, the Vietnam director for the nonprofit charity Animals Asia, told NBC News.

"To get the cubs they would have to kill the mother," Bendixsen added, "and the mother's body parts would be sold" for the trade in purported medicinal cures from bear parts. The body parts most in demand are gallbladders and paws.

The bears were found by police inspecting a basket in a town near the northern border with China. Across that border are multiple bile farms, Animals Asia said.

The Asiatic black bears, also known as moon bears, were given the nicknames Ricky and Joey.

Releasing the bears back into the wild is not an option, Bendixsen said, "because we don't know where they came from and since they were taken from their mother at such a young age they can't look after themselves in the wild."

Animals Asia estimates that more than 10,000 bears are kept on bile farms in China, and around 2,400 in Vietnam.

"They’re 'milked' regularly for their bile, which is stored in the gall bladder," Animals Asia said in a statement about the rescued cubs. "The bile is used as a form of medicine, even though many herbal and synthetic alternatives are available."

Bears are kept in small cages for up to 30 years while their bile is extracted with catheters, the group said. 

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A group of bears escaped from their enclosure at a park in northern Japan and mauled two women to death before they were tracked down and killed, police said Friday.

The two victims, employees in their 60s and 70s at the Hachimantai bear park near Kazuno City in Akita prefecture, were believed to have been feeding the bears from outside the concrete fence before several of the animals escaped, The Associated Press reported. The animals may have taken advantage of high-piled snowdrifts to climb over the fence.

The women's mangled bodies were found hours after a third employee escaped and called for help, according to AP.

Local hunters shot and killed six of the animals, all within the gated park.

Akita prefectural police spokesman Haruki Itou told ABC News there was no chance to simply tranquilize the bears.

"We could not get anywhere near the animals, but could not afford to let them escape," Itou was quoted as saying. 

It wasn’t immediately clear how many bears escaped. The park held 38 animals, most of them brown bears, and was closed to the public at the time of the escape. Itou told ABC he believed all the animals had been accounted for.

Police had advised area residents and schoolchildren to stay indoors while authorities searched for the loose bears.

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