After Living In A Cage For Years, This Bear Is Splashing For Joy! [VIDEO]

When Tuffy was rescued from a bile farm in Asia, he could barely move. Bears like Tuffy are kept in small cages to have their bile continuously extracted from their gallbladder to use in some forms of traditional Chinese medicine. The small cages where the bears reside do not even have floors for the bears to stand on.  cage.jpg

Photo via Animals Asia Facebook

The poor bears never leave theses cages, unless they are one of the lucky ones and are rescued by an organization like Animals Asia, an animal sanctuary and rescue that is fighting to end bear bile farming. 

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Photo via Animals Asia Facebook

Tuffy was in bad shape when he arrived at the sanctuary and after veterinarian examination it was determined that he needed to have his gallbladder completely removed. On top of this, he also had three fractured teeth and sore, extremely dry and cracked paws.

RescueT.jpgPhoto via Animals Asia Facebook

After several months of rehabilitation, Tuffy thoroughly enjoyed his first taste of outside freedom where he could roam about and of course splash for joy in the pool!

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Animals Asia Bear Manager Louise Ellis said:

“The cracked paws are common to bile farm bears as they only walk on bars, not grass. Dehydration is likely to have contributed to this too. So for his carers to see him take to the pool so quickly after he first became ready to face the outdoors was an amazing moment.

“Coming from years of little or no water, for Tuffy this must feel like a true oasis after being parched and in pain for so long. It must have felt like such a relief to have the freedom to splash around in the water after only being able to stand on the hard metal bars of the bile farm cage.”

Check out the video of Tuffy loving his freedom and having the time of his life in the water! Have you ever seen a bear happier to be free?! What do you think about bear bile farming? Have you heard of it before today? Let us know what you think on our Facebook page!  I admit that I had never heard of it, but now that I'm aware I definitely want to help end this practice. 

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