Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Are there bears in the Republic of Korea?
If not, I guess Koreans have to go abroad to hunt them.
Don't Koreans go to China for bears?

104 Koreans are held for illegal bear hunts
U.S. authorities announced yesterday they plan to indict 104 Koreans for hunting bears and selling parts of the slain animals on the black market. The poachers hunted in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park. Prosecutors said they were investigating a number of Koreans suspected of smuggling bear gall bladders and paws into Korea. The paws were sold for $2,000 to $3,000 each and gall-bladders for $3,000 to $5,000 each to ethnic Koreans living in the United States or to Korean smuggling gangs.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200401/10/200401100237544279900090409041.html

[rapier]

The only bears remaining in korea are a handful left in seoraksan nat. park. The rest have been hunted out for the gall bladder as RR points out...
While the market for body parts of endangered species continues, there'll be no end to the poaching. Koreans and chinese need to be educated about the damage to wildlife they are doing by buying these products. At the moment, it seems perfectly acceptable to most koreans...
In fact there's a whole range of environmental issues they are ignorant about, willfully or not.
I have some faith in people. I believe that if they were presented with the facts, they would indeed make the right choice and stop . Thats what happened with the anti- fur campaign, and it can happen here too.
korea has large reforested areas, where wildlife such as bears, deer, and other species could be re-introduced, when and if korea changes their attitudes to animals...

[Hyalucent]

This happens back in my hometown too. People driving along find a bear on the side of the road with nothing but the gallbladder taken. In recent years, the wardens have been much more vigilant to the crime however. The result: an increased number of poachers are going north to prey on polar bear, where it's much more difficult to police the landscape.

[Hyalucent]

[Mr. Pink]

[Hyalucent]

[ThreeDogNight]

Canadians had better beware of this problem: The US is all ready facing it, and is losing.

There's not enough funding and protection in the US territories, from what I've heard. The poachers also have more and more sophisticated weapons and tactics, and there's just too much territory for game wardens to cover.

[dogbert]

This, unfortunately, is not a new thing at all. The only thing surprising is that it is now being reported in the Korean media.

I can only imagine the outcry there would be if non-Koreans were doing something similar here. Oh well.

[Chonbuk]

I saw on the Discovery channel a few months ago a documentary about illegal bear farms in South Korea- Has anyone seen one of these??

I have seen some deer farms, and though I grew up in a hunting family I find it a bit shameful to think that these deers are killed only for their antlers. I really hope that the rest of the deer is being utilizied- but I'm not sure if they are or not.

Has anyone else heard the story of the bear that ran away in Jirisan?? Trackers are unable to find him anywhere-

run bear run!!

Cheers,

Chonbuk

[Mr. Pink]

[Zed]

I saw a deer farm just north of Suwon. (Uiwang, I guess)

[tsgarp]

The culling of antlers does not result in the death of the deer. Antlers, unlike the horns on an antelope fo example, are not permanent but rather fall off and grow back year after year.
I've never heard of bear farms in Korea. I think you're thinking of China or Vietnam where they are fairly common in the rural areas.
Mr. Pink, a gall bladderis small and easy to freeze dry and smuggle. Meat and furs are large and cumbersome to deal with. It would be doubly stupid to try to drive out of National park with bear meat and pelt.
Dogbert, the mistreatment of animals is not limited to just Koreans. Americans are responsible for a large part of the illegal trade in endangered exotic wildlife. Candians have been arrested for selling gall bladders to Chinese, Aussies won't hesitate to shoot a Kangaroo for sport, etc... Those Koreans caught for their illegal deeds should be punished but don't act as if you've never heard of other people in other countries doing f'ed up things. Only a week ago a British woman was arrested for illegally trading in African bush meat.

[rapier]

tsgarp: interesting point. If Deer can be commercially farmed because they have a value, why not bears? If the market was flooded with gall bladder from domestic bears, poachers wouldn't need to further deplete wild populations (already on the brink of extinction).
Morally, the idea of raising bears only for the sake of cutting a small organ out of them is reprehensible; but if thats what it takes to save the bearas a species, then so be it.
Its no different to Zimbabwe, where a lot of the funds pouring into wildlife conservation come from big game trophy hunters, who pay good U.S dollars to come and kill an elephant, and get it stuffed and mounted.
Asa result many farmers turned over vast tracts of land to big game hunting safaris. Without the hunters, the land would be used for growing tobacco, and their would be no animals..
If wildlife has a commercial value, it should be farmed and utilised on a sustainable basis...because that is the only way it is likely to ultimately survive. i don't see the Chinese becoming interested in photographic safaris, or conserving wildlife for postrerity- not for another century or so.

[dogbert]

[tsgarp]

Rapier, the way the bear farms work is unbelievably cruel. They put the bears in small cages and surgically insert tubes to extract the bile. This milking process does not kill the bears but it puts them into agonizing pain. Bears can be milked like this for years. Not exactly the same as amink farm or a dairy.