China's Gui Zhen Tang Pharmaceutical Corporation wants to be included on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Animal rights activists have called the demand outrageous and have called on the government to bar the move. The corporation is famously known for its bear farms in the country. They slaughter bears for their bile, a common ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, but local and international activists and animal rights organizations say the move would lead to more cruelty. According to Lee Chang, a Chinese animal rights activist based in Hong Kong, if allowed to be listed on the country's stock market, “it would basically tell the world that we don't mind slaughtering animals and keeping them in inhumane conditions. It is unnecessary killing and murder.” The bears on the farms live an average of five years, an online petition said. In the wild, bears average life span is five times as long. “Farmers extract their bile through tubes surgically implanted into their gall bladders. “And the result of this cruelty is that the bears, in addition to suffering infections and liver cancer,” said the petition, which is asking for signatures to end what they said is inhumane practices. Local and international activists have been demanding an end to the bear farms, and public opinion in China is increasing in opposition to the practice. BM
