A measure of success this week in the ongoing campaign against the cruelty of bear-bile farming. Parliament adopted a written declaration – equivalent to an early-day motion in the Commons – calling on China to end the abhorrent practice of extracting bile from moon bears. And the Chinese government sat up and took notice, holding a press conference to discuss the issue.

The declaration was launched by Labour MEPs and co-signed by me. In the end, we secured the signatures of over half of all MEPs (377 members) to adopt the declaration as the official position of the European Parliament. Few written declarations make the grade – this shows the strength of feeling on this issue.
China must realise that there is international abhorrence of bear bile farming and ban it once and for all. My colleagues and I intend to keep up the international pressure. Hopefully, they’ll be forced to close these bile farms before the eyes of the world turn to them for the 2008 Olympics.

(For those readers who aren’t familiar with the unpleasant details: Asiatic black bears, or ‘moon bears’, are incarcerated in tiny wire cages with rusting metal catheters implanted in their abdomens through which bile is extracted for use in traditional medicines. Despite the availability of herbal and synthetic alternatives, this bile is still used in traditional Chinese medicines. It’s banned in the EU, but occasionally found by police in raids on Chinatown in London. More details and some rather gruesome photos are on the website of the World Society for the Protection of Animals.)