[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 144 (Thursday, October 6, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 6, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            WE NEED ACTION TO CURB TRADE IN BLACK BEAR PARTS

                                 ______


                       HON. HELEN DELICH BENTLEY

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 6, 1994

  Mrs. BENTLEY. Mr. Speaker, one of the more repulsive things that I 
have seen in my lifetime is video footage of gallbladders and paws 
being removed from an illegally killed American black bear and its 
cubs. Poaching in and of itself is a ugly practice, but this is 
particularly sinister in that many of these black bear body parts are 
shipped from the United States to Asia where they are prized as food 
and medicinal products. Several years ago, I introduced legislation to 
focus attention on this growing problem which, to date, has remained 
largely obscured from public view.
  Unfortunately, even though there is a substantial body of evidence 
regarding the existence of this trade, there remains a lack of 
consensus on the actual or potential threat posed to the American black 
bear by the trade of gallbladders, paws, and other parts. On the one 
hand, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has repeatedly stated that, on 
the basis of its own internal reviews of available evidence, the trade 
does not pose a threat to black bears. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service argues that: First, black bears number some 500,000 to 600,000 
in the United States and Canada, and most populations are currently 
stable or increasing; and second, annually more than 40,000 black bears 
are harvested legally in the United States and Canada, and the majority 
of the bear gallbladders in trade are obtained from these legally 
harvested bears.
  However, many Federal and State law enforcement agents believe that 
the trade poses at least a potential threat to the American black hear 
and seriously question our ability to control a growing trade in bear 
body parts which now extends to virtually every corner of Asia.
  Last month, the International Symposium on Trade of Bear Parts for 
Medicinal Use was convened in Seattle by a number of sponsoring groups 
including Traffic USA, the wildlife trade monitoring program of World 
Wildlife Fund; the Woodland Park Zoo; and the IUCN/SSC Bear Specialist 
Group. The Symposium was intended as a forum in which wildlife 
managers, administrators, and law enforcement personnel from Federal 
and State agencies in the United States and Canada could exchange 
information and views and come to some consensus on the bear trade 
issue.
  Participants at the Seattle Symposium agreed that Asian bear species 
have already declined dramatically in part because of this trade. And 
although the American black bear is not currently threatened, the trade 
of parts from the American black bear is an issue that merits careful 
attention, research, and monitoring. The conference participants also 
believe that law enforcement is a critical tool for understanding and 
monitoring as well as controlling the trade of bear parts in North 
America, and that special operations and undercover investigations 
currently play a particularly important role in efforts to understand 
and respond to the trade.
  Unfortunately, budgetary and personnel cutbacks in many jurisdictions 
have severely reduced the amount of resources available for such 
operations. There also are many obstacles to the adequate exchange of 
information on the scale and impact of the trade among State, Federal, 
and provincial wildlife and law enforcement agencies, a situation that 
must be addressed if the trade is to be effectively monitored and 
controlled.
  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, through its law enforcement 
investigations and during the course of the 1992 study on the bear 
gallbladder trade, has acquired a selective database on the trade of 
bear parts. This database could assist Fish & Wildlife agents in 
understanding the bear trade and conducting covert operations in a 
consistent and coordinated fashion. It could assist the State agencies 
charged with the management of black bear populations in monitoring and 
investigation the gallbladder trade, increasing the effectiveness of 
limited budgetary and personnel resources. Unfortunately, this data 
base is not being used to enhance our ability to monitor and control 
the trade, because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not released 
it to its own agents and it has not made the information available to 
state agencies. Nor has the 1992 Service report on the trade of bear 
gallbladders--upon which it has based both internal policy and its 
answers to this body--been released to Service personnel, state 
agencies, or the public.
  I would be remiss in not voicing disappointment that this Congress 
has yet to hold one single hearing on this issue despite the fact that 
there is ample evidence to suggest the existence of organized networks 
around the Nation that orchestrate the illegal domestic and 
international trafficking in black bear body parts. Several months ago, 
the owner of a restaurant here on Capitol Hill handed me a price list 
that was given to him by a local food supplier who specializes in 
exotic meats. Black bear paws were on the list. So were black bear 
gallbladders which were priced at $100 a pound. In Asia, the 
gallbladder will routinely command up to 20 times that amount. In fact, 
a September 26th AP story regarding bear gallbladders quoted from a 
recent survey of traditional Chinese doctors in Korea, 92 percent of 
whom said that they would pay between $1,000 and $18,000 for a bear 
gallbladder.
  Now, when you have products like black bear gallbladders being 
quietly peddled right here on Capitol Hill, I would read that as a 
signal that we have a serious problem on our hands. The State of 
Maryland now supports a relatively small population of black bear, 
perhaps 200, and I am concerned about the origin of the gallbladders 
being sold in Washington DC.
  Unfortnately, within a matter of days, the 103rd Congress will 
conclude its official business for the year, having again missed a 
critical opportunity to give this issue the security that it deserves. 
It is imperative that we implement corrective measures now or else our 
domestic bear population runs the risk of being decimated much as it 
has throughout Asia.

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