WSU student tackles bear of a problem

One student at Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine hopes the work she's doing in Pullman will influence policy change against a cruel practice happening across the world.

Doctoral student Monica Bando, 39, was introduced to the plight of Asiatic black bears, an endangered species, six years ago.

Bando came across a job posting for Animals Asia, a charity organization that oversees the Chengdu Bear Rescue Center in China, while she was working at a private veterinary practice in California.

Impressed by its mission, she applied, was hired and moved to China. There she received a harsh introduction into the world of bear bile farming.

Early on in her new job, Bando was called with other veterinarians to rescue 10 bears from a bile farm in northeastern China. On the way back to the rescue center, she watched as veterinarians performed emergency surgery on a bear right in the bed of the truck.

"That was very, very jarring to me," she said.

Bear bile has been a key ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 3,000 years, she said. It's also used in some over-the-counter products, such as shampoos.

As a result, bears are trapped, declawed, brought to bear bile farms and put in cages barely bigger than the animal and without free access to food or water.

The farmers perform surgery on the gall bladder to remove the bile, but the bears are kept alive.

The practice is legal, although bile from poached wild bears is considered more potent by some, and thus sold on the black market.

Animals Asia estimates that 10,000 bears are farmed for bile. Bando said the Chengdu Bear Rescue Center has rescued about 550 bears.

"I had no idea what the extent of the problem was," she said.

Bando said Asiatic black bears captured for bile farming eventually die of diseases unusual for bears. For example, liver cancer is the leading cause of death for Asiatic black bears on the farms, followed closely by cardiovascular disease. What's more, researchers with Animals Asia have found that many Asiatic black bears die of aortic aneurisms, a condition that has never been reported in any other type of bear.

She said the organization believes complications of surgery and the resulting infections lead to these diseases in the endangered animals.

Bando said pharmaceutical companies and bile farmers deny these claims, and Animals Asia must find concrete proof to affect any change in policy.

"We're lacking evidence," she said.

That's why Bando, after leaving China in 2013 and eventually returning to the states, is using her time in Pullman to research the connections between bile farming and diseases. Bando's goal is to provide the research to Animals Asia to change the narrative that bile farming is harmless. Fortunately, she said, many people living in China are becoming more aware of the situation and voicing concern about the practice.

For Bando, this venture into saving bears was sort of a left turn in her life. She received her master's degree after studying marine mammals at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and then went to vet school in New Zealand.

She had no experience working with bears before her move to China, but her love of all animals has been a constant in her life. Bando said her parents told her that as a young child she talked to ants and tried to rescue butterflies.

"I always wanted to be a veterinarian," she said.

Her work has taken her all over the world, most recently from the highly populated Chengdu - a city with more than 14 million people - to the much smaller Pullman.

She hopes her work here in the small college town will lead to big changes across the globe and she encourages locals to become concerned in conservation and support organizations like Animals Asia.

For those interested in learning more about her work, Bando will give a presentation March 22 at Paradise Creek Brewery as part of the Palouse Discovery Science Center Pub.

Anthony Kuipers can be reached at (208) 883-4640, or by email to akuipers@dnews.com.